


Despairing Dance!

by SakuraHarukaMochi



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, 歌い手 | Utaite
Genre: Angst, Audience Interaction, But you don't need prior DR knowledge, Danganronpa AU, F/F, Interactive, M/M, Multi, lots of misery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2020-12-27 13:17:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 33,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21119432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakuraHarukaMochi/pseuds/SakuraHarukaMochi
Summary: A utaite danganronpa au story.You don't need to have played the games or even know anything about DR to read this!Soraru and 15 other utaites suddenly find themselves trapped inside a mysterious building in a killing game run by a odd talking creature. They are told the only way to leave is to kill one of their friends and sacrifice the rest. But, none of them would actually do that, right?This is an interactive story! You will be able to decide who Soraru hangs out with! And who knows? Your choices might just sway the tides of the story!





	1. Prelude

_Deep breaths, deep breaths, okay?_

_I'm sure this'll work! My plans never fail! _

_E-except when they do, but.... we don't talk about that!_

_Anyway, just make the last final adjustments...._

_And...._

_And...._

_There! All done! _

_Now... Next step.... _

_"_ _Visualize: Think about what you want and conjure it with all your might."_

_I'm thinking...._

_Done! Finally! And with this! Everything shall be completed!_

_Now the get the final ingredient... _

Crash!!!!

_Ooof, ugh, I need to learn to clean up my stuff before I try this again...._

_Now gently poor.... and........._

_......................._

_................._

_.............._

_........._

_......._

_..._

_Nothing happened???? _

_But I thought????_

_Ugh, sigh....._

_Oh well, back to the drawing board. This is what I get for trying a cheap knock of...._

"Oh well, indeed, my dear friend~"


	2. The Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning

“Soraru-san! Soraru-san, wake up!” a faintly familiar voice cut through the hazy fog of darkness clouding Soraru’s mind.

A light grown escaped his lips as his mind threatened to fall back into its previous dreamlike state.

“Soraru-san! Please wake up! Soraru-san!” the voice pleaded again, growing more desperate. Something about the tone of the voice broke Soraru’s heart even if his mind was too hazy to understand why. If only for the voice’s wishes, Soraru began to wake up.

Soraru grimly opened his eyes, his body barely managing to move itself as he laid on something really hard.

_Hard?_

“Uh…?” Soraru groaned in an unintelligible attempt to ask what was going on. Soraru’s tongue felt like a lump of cotton in his mouth and his lips like a worthless flab of rubber.

“Oh, thank goodness, Soraru-san, you’re awake!” the familiar voice sighed in relief. Soraru looked up to the source of the voice to find an equally familiar Mafumafu hovering worriedly over him.

His face was the same as the last time Soraru had seen it. He still had the same fluffy white hair that somehow managed to be perfectly messy in all the right ways and framed his face perfectly to show off his beautiful, sparkling red ruby eyes that glimmered like the stars in the sky whenever he looked at Soraru. The only difference from normal was the small worried frown taking over his soft, sweet lips that normally held the brightest smile Soraru had ever seen.

“I was so afraid that you would never wake up!” Mafumafu panicked just at the thought. Soraru forced his stiff muscles to move as he placed his hand over Mafumafu’s shaking one, the familiar gesture calming the other down instantly. 

Soraru groaned as he finally made a move to get off the hard surface he had been lying on which Soraru quickly learned was the ground.

Trying to look around himself, Soraru managed to catch a glimpse of a dimly lit, near-empty room except for all the bodies miscellaneously strewn all over the place. Upon closer inspection, Soraru realized he recognized the bodies as his friends who were also just starting to wake up and catch their surroundings as well.

As they all got up, they tried to examine their surroundings for any hint of what was going on or how they had gotten here. They all stared around confused still wary of their surroundings as they had all just woken up with no clue as to how or why they were there yet.

“Where are we?” Soraru groggily asked, holding onto his head which was currently throbbing like he had hit it incredibly hard.

Just as he had said that, bright lights flashed all over the room he was in, blinding him with the sudden change. Once he had recovered from the sudden strobe, Soraru was able to see around the room much more clearly to see what could vaguely be described as an auditorium with a large stage with a podium in front of a large open flat space that only held them at the moment. The walls were adorned with anthem flags and stickers like dozen of different company ads all competing and overlapping to try and consume your attention span so that you would consider buying their product through name recognition alone.

After a few moments of soaking in their now more seeable surroundings, all of their attention was drawn back to the podium center stage with an odd laugh like sound.

“Upupupupupu~ well, well. What do we have here~? Finally awake I see~!” an odd-sounding voice resonated throughout the auditorium hall.

“Wha–?” Mafumafu sputtered out in a mix of surprise, shock, and disbelief as the figure behind the voice revealed itself by coming out from behind the podium.

“Well, hello there~! My name is Blanc~” a small, almost cat-like creature made its way on top of the podium. It was pure white with wispy ghost-like fur that seemed to trail off into smoky tendrils at the end instead of normal fur. It also had glowing red eyes that gleamed with pure malice. It took the shape of a cat, but something about it seemed a lot more sinister.

The mere sight of it left shivers down Soraru’s spine and made him want to run back to the safety of his home.

“Why are we here!? What do you want with us!?” luz shouted from somewhere behind Soraru, but the older didn’t have time to turn around and check exactly where he was because he was too preoccupied with staring horrified at the creature in front of him.

A sickening giggling sound was heard from the creature, “Why are you here? Well, that’s simple, I want you all to play a little game for me~.”

“What? Why would we ever do that?” Shima said from somewhere of to Soraru’s side, fear seeping into his voice, making it waver slightly.

“Easy~ You don’t have a choice~” despite the peppy façade, a flash of malice crossed the creature’s face as its eyes glowed a bright red for a moment.

“Let us go! I don’t want to be here!!” Sakata yelled desperately, panic and fear evident in the shaky shouts of his voice as his body physically quaked in front of Soraru’s eyes.

Several other of Soraru’s friends also followed up and started shouting similar things at the creature who seemed unfazed by everyone’s reactions, all of their voices mixing and blending together into a soundless cacophony that rang like a hopeless nothingness in Soraru’s ears.

“Let us out of here! You’re insane!” nqrse shouted along with a few profanities, his pink hair and skirt slightly flying around him as he yelled at the cat-like thing that insisted that we were all to stay right where we were.

“Well, there is one way to get out of here~ upupupupupu~” the thing laughed at itself as if it had just shared the most amusing inside joke with itself.

“Then quit screwing around and tell us already!” Reol’s strongly demanding voice cut through the room with like a sharp crack.

“If you want to know so much, then I guess I have no choice but to tell you~ Just don’t get too upset with me when you hear what it is~” another sickening giggle resounded as if this was the most hilarious thing that had ever happened. “The only way to get out of this place~ is to kill one of your friends and get away with the crime~~!!!!!”

Soraru nearly choked when he heard that.

The moment that creature said that, the room went into uproar. Everyone started screaming and shouting profanities, yelling how they would never do that, to let them go, that the creature was insane.

“Oh~ but there is more~!” the things spoke up again, “After a body is discovered, you will all hold a trial to try and find out who killed one of the others. If you guess correctly, then only that person, the blackened, gets punished. But, if you pick the wrong person, then I’ll punish everyone besides the blackened, and that person gets to walk free again~!”

“By punished…” Eve just barely managed to choke out.

“Yep, yep!!! By punished, I mean _executed_,” another insane look crossed over its face again.

“You’re insane! There is no way I’m doing that!” Urata yelled, charging that the cat-like creature before grabbing it by the scruff of its neck and forcing him up.

“Violence against me is strictly prohibited. Doing so will result in punishment!” the creature declared as an odd ticking noise filled the auditorium.

Quickly understanding the severity of the situation, Amatsuki called out to his friend, “Urata! Put him down! Get away from there!”

Understanding the urgency, Urata hurriedly threw the creature and hopped down from the stage just in time to miss the several sharp spikes that pierced the floorboard where he had once stood.

“I’ll let you off easy this time as a first warning, but make sure to note that anyone who tries to bring harm to me will be punished!” the creature decreed to the rest of them, just as they were getting over their shock of just how truly close Urata had been to death at that moment.

“Now then, if all of your noisy complaints are over and done with, I have one final thing to give you!”

From the floorboards, a little pedestal rose in front of everyone, holding a tablet looking thing with a silver metallic shell. When Soraru moved to boot it up, he was greeted with a picture of himself along with his real name and a bunch of other facts about him such as his height, weight, blood type, and birthday.

“This is your key to living here! It allows you to access your room, the locker room, the building layout, the rules of the game, and other people’s profiles. Also, you can give someone access to your room with your key, but be careful who you give it to, not everyone here is to be trusted~!”

Without noticing it, the pedestals had once again retracted into the floorboards, leaving Soraru with the metal tablet in his hands. Glancing up to see everyone doing the same, Soraru looked through the layout of the tablet and decided to look over the rules. Briefly glancing over the rules, he found they were much the same as what the creature had told him before with the only new things being “nighttime” in which certain areas would become off-limits until daytime resumed.

Done with the slab of metal in his hand that was only serving as more solid proof of everything not being some hyper-realistic, insanity dream, Soraru took the time to truly look at everyone who was with him. There were sixteen of them total, including Mafumafu and Soraru. They were Amatsuki, Kashitaro, Urata, Shima, Sakata, Senra, luz, Araki, nqrse, un:c, Eve, Sou, Reol, and Lon.

Each of them held the same look of doubt and misery as he did.

“Well then, now that my part is done~ I’ll leave all of you to officially get adjusted to your new lives here in this killing game~! I hope you all have a wonderful time here and make tons of fun memories to last a lifetime~! No matter how short that may be~! Remember~ I’m Blanc, the one in charge of making sure this killing game goes off without a hitch~! Until next time~ Upupupupupupupu~”

And with that, it left. It left them to all ponder what was going on. Their new reality. Their new lives. Their new existences within the walls of this building. And the one way to escape.

Everyone around him held the same look of disbelieving despair as they were left alone with their thoughts.

Soraru’s mind was reeling.

_This wasn’t happening, right? This was all a sick dream, right? There is no way this was reality. Reality… reality didn’t work like that! _

Yet here he was. And no matter how hard he pinched his arm and prayed that it was all a dream, this is where he stayed.

What kind of hell had Soraru’s life just become? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I absolutely adore comments! So please make sure to put any comments, questions, concerns, critiques, insults, or whatever you would like wherever you would like! Whether that be telling me your theories or just telling me that you hate my existence and think that I should kill myself! Make sure to leave a comment where you can!


	3. A New Life

Soraru stared at the ceiling as he laid in his bed, letting his eyes trace over the design plastered above his head. As his mind was consumed with the thoughts everything and nothing, he examined the far out of place mural that took over the ceiling of his room.

The room itself was cozy enough if Soraru was able to look past the situation he was in. The walls to the room had been painted a deep midnight blue shade with simple white designs, complementing the mahogany wood and ivory carpet floor. It held a large, plush bed with a deep blue comforter, a small mahogany wood nightstand next to the bed, a mahogany dresser pushed against the far wall, a similar-looking cabinet next to it, and a small seating set consisting of a chair, a two-person couch, and a coffee table, each the same mahogany wood and deep blue fabric aesthetic as the rest of the room.

The room also had a private restroom and a personal closet. The restroom was full-sized with both a bath and a shower and was filled with all the basic necessities including a hamper for clothes and towels. The closet and dresser were filled with oddly similar replicas to his own clothes at home, including the same articles of the same style but just barely noticeably different, creating an uneasy feeling of everything being off without a true cause. The cabinet, on the other hand, was filled with weapons of various kinds from knives to bats to a small revolver to even a broad sword. Soraru had very quickly shut and locked it as soon as he had seen what was inside, already sick to his stomach at the sight.

But the truly defining feature of the room was the giant mural on his ceiling. It was a picture of the biblical Last Supper, Soraru was pretty sure. He wasn’t a very religious person, but he thought he remembered some teacher from back in grade school years ago talked about how in this scene, Jesus was eating his last meal before being killed by the people around him who betrayed him for only a few silver coins. At least, Soraru was pretty sure that’s what happened.

Even with all the features of his new room, all he could think about was his situation. This “killing game” as the creature had called it, was that thing being serious? Was it really expecting all of them to betray each other just like that? As if Soraru would do such a thing. As if any of his friends would.

But even so, Soraru still stayed up all night, unable to catch any sleep due to the thoughts that kept bouncing around in his mind. He just laid on his bed, eyes endlessly tracing the lines of the mural above his head. Time moved by him at a snail’s pass, feeling like an everlasting eternity of dread and despair, yet once it was over, it felt like it had only been a moment as if passing in a blur that may never truly had happened. However, throughout the entire night, one thought kept reoccurring.

This was a dream. It had to be. Things like this. They don’t truly occur. Any moment now. In only a moment, I’ll wake up. I’ll wake up in my bed to the harsh morning sun blaring down on my face as I realize that yet again I forgot to close the blinds before I went to sleep. Or I’ll wake up to the crackling ring of my alarm clock as I annoyedly ponder how to kill it again as I trudged myself out of bed. I’ll go about my daily life and forget all about this experience and it will become just another weird dream. This is a dream.

But Soraru’s thoughts were harshly interrupted by a loud blaring in his ears. Soraru finally tore his eyes away from the mural to look at the source of the sound.

“Hello~ This is an announcement~” the screen in the corner of the room screeched to life accompanied by a sickeningly familiar voice, “It is now 8 am! Daytime has now begun! Please have a wonderful first day of the killing game~” With one final laugh, the screen flickered off and Soraru was more awake and sourer than before.

Letting a groan slip past his lips, he moved away from his bed. He forced his body up and away from the comforting embrace of the plush cushions and pushed himself up towards the restroom. He could already feel the lack of sleep take its toll on his body, making him sluggish and miserable with each body movement that left him aching and wanting to crawl back into bed to sleep.

But, of course, he couldn’t.

But, of course, that thing would never allow that.

As if their current situation wasn’t bad enough. The horrid creature that trapped them here also demanded that they all attended breakfast every day and that they all need to be at the dining hall by 9 am or else. Soraru knew for a certainty that each and every one of them was not an early riser. In fact, as utaites, all of them had pretty messed up sleep schedules as it was. But, that thing still demanded that they show up at the ungodly hour of the morning.

Doing his best to abide by the insane creature’s request, Soraru made sure to leave his room by 8:30 and made his way down the long corridor to get to the dining hall.

The dining hall was just a simple space with a long oval-shaped table as the only really important piece of the room. In his tired haze, Soraru blocked out all of the other minor decorative details and instead focused on the people in the room, namely Lon, Reol, Eve, and Sou, who had already arrived, each in a different state of alertness.

They all greeted his “good morning” as they saw him, to which he muttered a quiet “mornin’” back, making his way to a small door in the corner of the room that he knew led to the kitchen. Inside of it was all the necessities to make food as well as a giant pantry and fridge for ingredients. But, what caught Soraru’s eye was a large buffet-style station filled to the brim with a bunch of breakfast foods of shapes, styles, and sizes.

Grabbing a bunch of random things he thought looked good, he made his way back to the dining hall where the others where all gathered around. Soraru placed his plate next to Lon’s as he sat down to start eating, entering the conversation that the other four were having.

“I’m sure there must be some way to escape from here. We got in, we have to be able to get out,” Reol said thoughtfully from her spot on the opposite end of Lon. Despite the early hours, she looked quite awake and ready for the day with her make-up, hair, and clothes all made properly.

“Yes, but,” Eve interjected. Despite his clean and crisp clothing, his face and voice showed visible signs of exhaustion due to lack of sleep. “We have no idea where it would be or if we can even get to it. Remember, Blanc holds control over this entire place. I doubt he would just allow us to leave.”

“But it doesn’t hurt to hope right? If we keep thinking negatively, we’ll never be able to leave,” Lon hesitantly replied, her desperate eyes betraying her hopeful words. She looked more emotionally exhausted than physically. Her clothes, although slightly rumpled, were neat and orderly.

“Yeah. Hope is the most important thing to keep while in bad situations,” Sou nodded tiredly, spacing out lightly as he drifted in and out of sleepiness. He was the worse off out of everyone currently in the cafeteria. Visible dark circles lined the undersides and his clothes were crumpled and messy, haphazardly thrown onto his body.

“I have to agree with Eve. If there was a place where we could escape, what makes you think we would be able to find it? I highly doubt that a place like that would be accessible to us. If it exists, it seems like it would be under highly secure lock and key,” Soraru reasoned.

Just as he said that, more people entered the dining hall. Kashitaro followed closely behind by un:c both walked into the dining hall, each sporting similar looks of sleep deprivation. Kashitaro walked up to the group.

“G’ morning,” Kashitaro said, exhaustion dripping into his voice. He looked relatively normal despite the situation, holding a calm countenance and laid-back movements. He took his seat at the edge of the table, leaning back in his chair a few away from Soraru.

“You seem fine this morning,” un:c commented, having just made his way into the room, earning a deft laugh from the former. Un:c was evidently exhausted with dark circles under his eyes and yawning every other second. He stretched out lightly before waving to everyone and going into the kitchen as well.

Araki, nqrse, and luz all entered the dining hall together next. With only formal acknowledgements of “good morning”s as greetings, they quickly moved into the kitchen to grab some food for themselves. When the three came back out with their plates, they sat down at the table near Soraru with nqrse across the way from Soraru, luz, and Araki flanking the shortest’s sides.

“This ‘mandatory breakfast thing’ seems more like a ploy to get us all more exhausted and miserable than anything else. He probably wants us to be all cranky and tired so that we’ll participate more easily or some dumb thing like that,” nqrse grumbled under his breath. Despite the obvious tiredness in his voice, he still looked completely fine with his make-up all up and done perfectly, his pink hair lightly curled in his normal style, complemented nicely by his red ribbons, and his clothes pressed and fit cleanly onto his frame.

“Tell me about it…” Araki groaned, looking far less clean than his companion with his red hair haphazardly combed down and clothes rumpled slight. He left his comments at that and instead focused on eating his food.

“I wish we did have to wake up so early,” luz mumbled through his sleepy haze. He was by far the messiest out of the group with his hair in every direction and his clothes messily thrown onto his body. Luz tiredly ate his food, almost dozing off at one point and nearly face planting into his breakfast before nqrse managed to catch his head and prevent it from colliding with his eggs.

Empty chatter began to fill the dining hall as people broke off into smaller conversations. During that time, un:c came over and sat down next to Araki, plate stacked full of food.

“I would prefer if we didn’t have to be here at all,” un:c commented bitterly, a yawn at one point cutting him off while he spoke. Unsurprisingly, he too looked like a wreck with messy clothes and a tried expression.

Nearing the final 9 am deadline to enter the kitchen, the last few stragglers entered into the dining hall. First Urata who seemed to desperately be trying to hide just how exhausted he was, followed by Sakata who looked dead inside as he walked hunched over, arm gripping onto Urata as his boyfriend guided him towards the kitchen.

Amatsuki came in next, trying his best to keep up a cheerful demeanor as he went into the kitchen only to come out a bit later holding two plates of food, handing one over to the Kashitaro as he sat down next to his lover.

Then, Shima came in, looking like a zombie as he shuffled over towards the kitchen, later taking his seat next to Urata with his plate stacked high.

Soraru looked at the clock on his tablet: 8:58 am. Where was Mafumafu? The creature that trapped them there made it very clear that if they weren’t in the dining hall by 9 am, there would be serious consequences, and seeing as it had already tried to kill one of them before, they all knew it was not messing around.

When Soraru looked back up again, he saw that Senra was now also in the room, slightly panicked due to almost being late.

Soraru was about to get out of his seat to go find Mafumafu before it was too late when the dining hall doors opened, revealing a very exhausted Mafumafu. A mix of relief and concern flooding through his veins, Soraru makes his way over to his lover.

“Mafu, are you alright?” Soraru gently cupped the younger’s cheeks. He was a mess, very prevalent dark circles taking over his eyes, his clothes a rumpled mess, pure exhaustion written all over his face.

Mafumafu stayed quiet, looking far too out of it to make a comment. Soraru simply led him to the kitchen to get him some breakfast.

Soraru made a quiet resolve with himself.

He would get Mafumafu out of there. No matter what!


	4. A Moment of Peace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Voting Results are in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
Here's the break down:
> 
> Mafumafu: 5 votes  
Sou & nqrse: 4 votes (nqrse won the coin toss, hence why he's featured more prevalently)  
Urata, Amatsuki, luz, Araki: 3 votes  
Senra, Reol, Lon, Eve: 2 votes  
Shima, Kashitaro, un:c: 1 vote  
Soraru, Sakata, Blanc: 0 votes

Already nearly a week had passed since they first got locked into their hell hole. Soraru wasn’t quite sure how to think of it quite yet. He and the others had been trying to search for an exit or a clue every day since they first arrived with little to no luck.

Every day was the same routine. Wake up to the awful morning announcement, head to a depressing breakfast with everyone else, devise a plan for the day, search for a way out or some clue of any kind, reconvene for dinner, compare data, learn that no one found anything, go to their rooms for the night, be unable to get any decent rest, and start it all again the next day.

As much as Soraru wanted to believe in the “power of hope” as his friends such as Lon and Sou described it, with day after day bringing nothing but more exhaustion, Soraru wasn’t sure he could keep up with it all anymore. It was simply too much for him.

“Hello~ This is an announcement~” the screen in the corner of the room screeched to life accompanied by a sickeningly familiar voice, “It is now 8 am! Daytime has now begun! Please have another wonderful day of the killing game~” With one final laugh, the screen flickered off.

Groaning again as he dragged himself out of his bed, preparing to go through the same empty routine as all the days before. He messily attempted to make himself a general form of the word presentable and left for breakfast, ready to hear the same old drabble about how they all need to believe that they can get out and work hard yet again today.

However, when he got to the dining hall meeting, he was met with a surprising message.

“Can we not?” Araki had muttered, almost on the brink of tears, overwhelming despair consuming his face.

“W-what do you mean? We need to–” Amatsuki desperately tried to encourage him, false hope, fear, and desperation etched onto his face.

“No, Araki is right. We can’t keep going on like this,” Urata sighed, hopelessness covering up his face.

“B-but!” Amatsuki stuttered as he looked to the faces of his friends around him, each refusing to meet his gaze in shame and guilt.

“Face it, Amatsuki. No one wants it like this. We can’t just keep going on as if trying to pretend that there is hope where there is none,” Soraru spat out bitterly, eyes trained on his food in front of him, afraid to look at the hurt and disappointed look in his friend’s eyes.

“Let’s just–” luz’s voice cracked slightly, “let’s just take the day off for today. I think everyone needs the rest.”

With small mutters of agreement and acquiescence, everyone split off to spend their free time separately.

Soraru turned next to him where Mafumafu was staring down at his food tiredly. Guilt taking over his face from not speaking up for his best friend when he needed it. When Amatsuki had looked around for somebody to back him up, he particularly glanced at Mafumafu for help. But Mafumafu had kept his eyes trained down the whole time. Soraru understood, though. Mafumafu was just as tired as the rest of them. They needed this break for their sanities’ sake.

“Hey, Mafu, do you want to spend the day with me?” Soraru asked gently, carefully cupping the other’s hand and lacing their fingers together in a comfortingly familiar motion.

Mafumafu looked up at his for a brief moment before looking back down at their connected hands. He gave a small squeeze back to the other as he gave Soraru a weak, yet kind smile.

“Of course.”

In the end, the two of them went back to Soraru’s room and decided to cuddle, basking in each other’s comforting warm, trying to forget about the truth of the situation at hand. They hummed lightly to each other, letting no other words be exchanged in the peaceful quiet.

If Soraru closed his eyes, he could almost imagine he was back home, lying on his bed with Mafumafu in his arms after a tiring day of work, ready to snuggle up close to his angel and let sleep overtake him into the night and next morning. When he slept beside his lover, he found that sleep always came so easily, and the mornings woken up next to his sleeping face were the only times he truly didn’t mind being brought of the embrace of his dreams.

But a simple question wretched him out of his fantasies.

“What do you think is happening? In the world outside?” Mafumafu muttered, words cutting through the warm quiet like a knife to the heart.

“I-I’m not sure…” Soraru was taken aback by the sudden question.

“We’ve been gone for a week; surely, everyone has noticed our absence by now…” Mafumafu pondered the thought, hints of sorrow and fear creeping into his voice.

“I’m sure they must be looking for us,” Soraru said blankly, void of all emotion in his voice. Soraru gave Mafu’s hand a soft squeeze.

“What do the fans think happened to us?” Mafumafu returned the gesture with a squeeze of his own, his tighter and shakier than the older’s.

“I’m sure our staff has told them some reason for us being out.”

“I wonder what our staff told the fans.”

“Whatever it was, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“I just hope they don’t get too upset at us for not posting and having to cancel our concerts.”

“They’ll understand.”

“But what if the staff doesn’t give a good explanation and they get mad.”

“Remember, it’s not just us that went missing. A lot of other utaite are here as well. With so many disappearances, even with a lackluster explanation by our staff, I’m sure our fans will be able to piece together something bad happened and will be more forgiving towards us.”

“But, what if–”

“Mafu,” Soraru said in his kindest and gentlest voice possible, “It will be fine. There is no point worrying over ‘what if’s far outside of our control.” Soraru carefully moved Mafumafu closer to him, soothingly wrapping his arms around the younger in a soft embrace.

From his position, Soraru was able to see the clock on his wall proudly displaying the time: 12:47 am.

“Hey, how about we get some lunch? I know you didn’t eat much for breakfast,” Soraru suggested calmly, not letting go of Mafumafu quite yet.

“Hmm, sure,” Mafumafu mumbled, nuzzling his face into Soraru’s shoulder as he said that.

They stayed joined together for a few moments before separating yet still staying close together with their fingers intertwined at their sides as they made their ways down the long corridor to the dining hall.

When they entered the room, they were greeted with the sight of a lone person eating in silence at the long table, his back to the door. Just from the back, Soraru was able to recognize the figure as Sou. When they opened and shut the door, Sou turned to the sound of the entering two.

“Oh, hello, Soraru-san, Mafumafu-san,” Sou greeted kindly. He already looked better than the last time Soraru had seen him. From the look on his face and slightly rumbled clothes, Soraru guessed that he spent his time napping in his room and left for a late lunch afterward.

“Sou,” Soraru nodded back before heading into the kitchen to grab something to eat for him and Mafumafu as the younger went to go sit by Sou and start up a conversation.

When Soraru returned with plates of food for both him and Mafumafu, he was greeted by the sight of the two males in the midst of a deep conversation about cats and ramen. The scene was oddly… comforting to Soraru like something ripped straight out of his normal life.

The look on Mafumafu’s face as he talked about his two cats was nothing short of dazzling. The way his eyes lit up like the light reflecting in the gem of a ruby, the way his lips stretched widely into a bright smile that shined like the sun on a clear sky day, the way his face gleamed with pure wonder and fascination like the top he was discussing was the most amazing thing he had ever heard, Mafumafu started to finally seem like himself again.

The two childish males continued to ramble on and on about whatever topic came into their minds, from their cats at home to their favorite ramen places to their favorite songs to cover to even embarrassing stories about their lovers (or crush in Sou’s case).

Sou was in love with Eve, something that he was not afraid to admit to everyone but Eve. It was honestly quite cute to see Sou fawn over his crush like a young schoolboy experience true love for the first time. Soraru was actually surprised that Eve hadn’t figured it out yet, seeing how obvious Sou is about his love for the older. But then again, Eve didn’t get the title “Floof Head” without having a bit of obliviousness.

Soraru enjoyed watching the two younger men excitedly talk, occasionally injecting when he can, but he mostly left the conversation to the two others with him. It was calming despite the energy of the conversation and the situation it was presented in, but it still made Soraru pleased none the less.

“Well, anyway,” Sou finally said, moving to get out of his chair and stretch out his muscles that had been relaxing in the chair for the better half of an hour, “I have to get going. I promised to meet Eve out in the common area by 2 pm.”

“Alright then, have fun, Sou-kun!” Mafumafu cheered on his friend with an excited wave goodbye.

“See ya,” Soraru nonchalantly gave a half-wave back as a farewell.

After bidding Sou a farewell, the two decided to put their stuff away and go do something else as well. While leaving the dining hall, they were debating about going back to their rooms or to possibly look for clues again (not like they haven’t already done that a million times over the course of the week they’ve been here, but who’s counting?). But, just as they left, they ran into luz and nqrse. Startled, luz had almost walked straight into the door when it swung open.

“Oh, Soraru-san, Mafu-kun, hello,” nqrse greeted the two with a smile on his face.

“nqrse-chan, luz-kun,” Soraru acknowledged back with a nod.

“Uh?” luz made an odd sound as if his mind was still processing the situation, then his face lit up like he had made the most amazing discovery, “Oh! Mafu-kun! There was this thing I wanted to show you and you alone! Please follow me!” luz nearly shouted as he dragged Mafumafu behind him with an excited glee in his eyes, leaving Soraru and nqrse behind. Soraru could almost see the dog tail wagging behind him as he ran away with Mafumafu.

Mafumafu turned back briefly as if to check Soraru’s reaction before giggling and turning back to run along with luz.

An embarrassed laugh resonated next to Soraru. “I guess it’s just us now,” nqrse chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and messing with the ends of his pink hair nervously. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t apologize. I don’t mind,” Soraru calmly waved away his friend’s concern. “So what do you wanna do now?”

“Wanna go to one of our rooms? I mean, there’s not much more to do unless you want either to hang in the common which I’m pretty sure Eve and Sou are using for their date, go to one of the four oddly creepy empty rooms, look through the storage area for whatever reason, enter the empty auditorium, or head back into the dining hall you just came out of,” nqrse listed off their options, deadpan.

“And don’t forget the infirmary,” Soraru corrected, jokingly.

“Oh, yes, and of course, go to the infirmary to heal your non-existent injuries. Unless you count the heartbreak you must be feeling,” nqrse commented with a roll of the eyes.

“Heartbreak?” Soraru questioned, lifting an eyebrow at the pink-haired male.

“Yeah, heartbreak by the fact that your lover just got swooped away from you,” nqrse jabbed teasingly.

“Oh?” a devilish smirk crossed Soraru’s face, “My heartbreak? Then sure you to must being feeling heartbreak after _your_ lover–”

“C-cut it out! We’re not like–” nqrse attempted to cut off Soraru only to be cut off himself.

“But you want it to be that way, right, “I-have-the-most-obvious-crush-on-luz-kun”–chan?” Soraru teased the other as his face lit up a vibrant red shade.

“Enough of that! Just let me in!” nqrse pouted as they finally reached their destination outside Soraru’s door.

Snorting softly, Soraru let nqrse into his room as the other immediately went to make himself comfortable on the couch.

“And besides, you know my situation,” nqrse huffed as his eyes trailed off into thoughts far away from his current reality.

The reason why was because nqrse was in love with both Araki and luz, and due to Soraru having no promised obligation from either one of them to keep it quiet on their feelings, nqrse already knows both like him back. For him, now it’s just a matter of choosing which one he loved more (easier said than done, obviously).

“Yeah, I understand. I’m just teasing,” Soraru apologized as he sat down on the armchair that came with the seating set as well.

“Huh? Oh no need to apologize, Soraru-san,” nqrse flashed the other a comforting smile.

The two stayed like that, chatting for a bit, letting their conversation lull from one topic to the next effortlessly without any pressure about continuing and progressing the conversation or keeping things on topic and structured. They just let the calm of the discussion move through them, allowing for times when neither had anything to say as they just sat in comfortable silence.

It was during one of these breaks that nqrse spoke up again, “Hey, Soraru-san, do you ever feel like–” nqrse cut himself off as if searching for the right words to say.

When he didn’t speak up again for a while, Soraru interjected, “–feel like what, nqrse-chan?”

There was another pause as nqrse continued to collect his thoughts, “I’m not sure. It’s an odd feeling. I just have a really odd feeling about this game.”

“What gave you that impression? Was it the talking cat? Or the “killing our friends” part that tipped you off?” Soraru offered, exasperatedly.

“I’m being serious, Soraru-san,” nqrse frown, his eyebrows creasing in a deep, irritated frustration; though, it wasn’t aimed at Soraru. “It’s like… there is… something else going on in this game. I can feel it. There is a part of the picture we just aren’t grasping.”

“This place is full of mysteries. We still don’t know who trapped us here or truly why we are here,” Soraru face turned dark as he thought about how little control they all had over their situation.

“I just feel it. There is something far deeper to this game than we can't even begin to understand,” nqrse sighed out, his face turning hard with set determination to figure out just what was going on.

“Then we’ll just have to work together to figure out what it is,” Soraru resolved, looking nqrse straight in the eyes.

He saw nqrse take a deep breath before nodding and giving Soraru a little smile. Nqrse’s eye flickered up for a moment before a surprise exclamation left his lips softly, “Oh, wow, it got late fast. We should head to dinner before we leave everyone waiting for too long.”

Soraru glanced at the time before noting that, indeed, it was just a bit past the group’s designated dinner time. Standing up and stretching himself out slightly, he made his way to his door, waiting for nqrse to join as well.

Once they were out, Soraru and nqrse made their way towards the dining hall, earning everyone’s attention when they entered in late for the meeting. Other than a few friendly reminders to try to arrive on time next time and some well-natured jabs and suggestions, the matter was dropped easily, and the meeting was able to commence. But, since no one actually did anything, the meeting was over in nothing more than a few hopeful words.

After the meeting, they all once again head off to do their own things with some opting to stay up and hang out in the common area while others decided to return to their rooms to get an early lease on sleep. Soraru and Mafumafu were two of the early sleepers.

But by tonight, Soraru wanted to ask Mafumafu a special question.

“Hey, Mafumafu, do you wanna sleep in my room tonight?” Soraru asked right as they were nearing the rooms.

“Huh???” Mafumafu nearly choked on air when he heard that.

“I-I mean, we already sleep in the same bed at home…” Soraru muttered, tripping over his words slightly as he refused to look at Mafumafu’s eyes. “I just thought it would be easier to sleep with y-you n-next to me…” Soraru’s voice trailed off in embarrassment.

Soraru couldn’t see Mafumafu’s face, but he quickly heard a sweet little “of course!” which instantly calmed Soraru’s nerves.

When they reached his room, Mafumafu easily opened the door with his tablet, thanks to Soraru having already given the other permission to enter his room. Upon entering the room, they quickly sped through their nighttime routines. 

The two laid down next to each other, snuggled closely in each other’s arms. Feeling the familiar body heat next to him, Soraru finally felt at ease as he let the warm embrace of sleep wash over him, thinking to himself that nothing could go wrong as long as he had Mafumafu by his side forever.


	5. A Reason

“Hello~ This is an announcement~” the screen in the corner of the room screeched to life accompanied by a sickeningly familiar voice, “It is now 8 am! Daytime has now begun! Please have another wonderful day of the killing game~” With one final laugh, the screen flickered off.

Soraru let a few curses slip from his lips as he was forcefully pulled out of the warm embrace of sleep by the obnoxious voice. With a lot of effort, he fought off the urge to just fall back asleep and pulled himself up from the bed, nearly falling over in his half-asleep stupor.

Soraru glanced over at Mafumafu who seemed to be having a similar morning experience. His hair was a tousled mess sticking up in every direction as a small, cat-like yawn left his lips. His oversized clothes were crumbled and slightly ajar revealing hints of his pale, smooth shoulder as the edge of his shirt dripped down. He rubbed his eyes tiredly attempting to remove the sleepiness from his system, but even that seemed to make more tired as his hand faltered and threatened to fall down as he drifted off to sleep despite standing up.

Although he found the sight absolutely adorable, too adorable for words, Soraru couldn’t help but feel bad for how exhausted the younger was.

_Shut-ins don’t deserve to be forced into such awful sleep schedules._

“Good morning… Sowawu-san…” Mafumafu muttered sleepily, nearly toppling over a large yawn shook his body, his body still swaying slightly even after he finished yawning.

“Good morning, Mafu,” Soraru moved over to the other side of the bed, giving the exhausted younger a small kiss on his forehead before stabilizing him and leading him to the restroom.

The two continued their mornings in a half-asleep haze, moving around each other in a practiced routine, almost as if it was any other normal day for the two of them. The familiar feeling only came to an end once they found that Mafumafu didn’t have any clothes at Soraru rooms and they had forgotten to grab them before they went to bed.

“Uh… do you– do you wanna w-wear my clothes? I have some things that are oversized, so… the others… might not… notice…” Soraru awkwardly forced out of his lips, upon realizing their mistake.

A bright red flush passed across Mafumafu’s face, shuffling uncomfortably from the embarrassment. “I-it’s not like i-it’s the f-first time I-I’m w-wearing your c-clothes, s-so…” Mafumafu stuttered out, face getting redder by the second at the thought of wearing Soraru’s clothes.

Soraru made a sound somewhere between an awkward cough and a noise of confirmation as he went searching through his closet for the clothes that Mafumafu going to wear. Finding what would hopefully be the perfect outfit for the younger to wear, Soraru brought it out to show him.

“The only one we have to worry about knowing is that thing,” Soraru reasoned with himself as he handed over the clothes to Mafumafu, face radiating heat.

“Wait, what thing?” Mafumafu tilted his head slightly in confusion at Soraru’s vague words.

“That cat-like creature, the one that trapped us here?” Soraru statement came out more like a question than an answer.

“You mean Blanc?” Mafumafu saw the lost look on Soraru’s face, “That’s his name. He has a name. You did catch that, right?”

“Oh, yeah, him…” Soraru sheepishly looked away, sure that his face was flaming red. Truth is he had completely zoned out when the crea- Blanc had introduced himself.

“That’s just like Soraru-san,” Soraru heard Mafumafu giggle slightly, “Now look away! I’m changing!”  
  


* * *

  
“I have a very, very special announcement for all of you!!!” Blanc’s voice suddenly ripped through the evening chatter as everybody instantly shut off all of their dinner conversations to look at the white cat sitting perched on top of a shelf in the corner of the room.

Everyone’s eyes followed the small creature as it leisurely hopped off the shelf and moved towards the table everyone sat at.

“I think this game is getting boring. None of you are doing anything! That’s why I have decided to give you a little hint to help push you in the right direction,” Blanc hopped onto the table and instantly started trying to nuzzle un:c who was at the table’s end.

“You can think of this as a motive of sorts to get you more invested in the killing game,” Blanc moved away from un:c as he forcefully wrenched his hand away from where Blanc had tried to rub against it.

“There are two very special people among you! These two are the traitor and the mastermind!" Blanc purred in a horrifyingly over-excited voice as he wagged his tail chipperly at the thought of everyone's despair.

"Wha-" Urata barely managed to stutter out before being cut off with a threatening look from Blanc.

"Oi, midget, don't interrupt me got it?" Blanc growled out before completely shifting his mood back to overly cheerful once again.

"Anyway~~ where was I before I was so rudely interrupted~~?" Blanc purred as he attempted to nuzzle himself up to Senra who instantly backed away in fear and disgust.

"Oh right, the traitor and mastermind~. These are two special people hidden within your group. The traitor knows more than they are letting on and the mastermind is the one who trapped you all here. These two are among the group, hiding in plain sight. It would be best to hunt and find these horrible people out first. They are so dangerous to you that, in fact, I'll give you a reward for their capture.”

Soraru felt the air run stiff with that comment. No one dared to look at each other. No one dared to look away from the deranged cat. No one dared to make a sound. No one even dared breath.

“When the traitor is killed, the person who killed them will freely be allowed to leave this place without sacrificing their friends as long as they get away with the crime. But more spectacularly, when the mastermind is killed, everyone gets to leave, no trial or anything!"

"Really!?" Shima coughed out, disbelief and the faintest shreds of hope clouding his voice.

"What's with you and killing?!" Amatsuki asked appalled at every word spoken by the creature now in front of Sou who was cowering behind Eve in his seat.

“Oh, what’s your problem with killing?” Blanc shot back, moving over to nqrse who made no move to even acknowledge the existence of the cat.

“I won’t kill my friends if that’s what you’re asking!” Amatsuki shot back, anger causing his fists to ball up and his eyes to water with tears. He flinched but calmed down once he felt Kashitaro’s hand atop his own, sending warm comfort in through their junction.

“Not even if that person was the one who sent you here or was deceiving you all?” Blanc asked, now nuzzling against the back of nqrse’s hand as he refused to even look at the white cat in front of him.

Amatsuki was left dumbfounded at those words, unable to muster up the thought of one of his friends betraying him.

“I still wouldn’t! I won’t! I can’t believe that one of our friends would betray us! It’s not possible!” Lon shouted at the white cat who had finally moved on from nqrse and was now headed her way. Lon visibly shrank back as the cat drew near.

“Well, you better warm up to the idea because it’s true. One of you here is a traitor who knows about what is going on here and what is to become of all of you but is hiding it from you. Another one is the mastermind who is responsible for trapping you all and forcing you into this killing game. No matter how you look at it, this is the truth. Believe it or not, it will not change. This is your world now. This is what one of your so-called friends know far too much about. This is what one of your so-called ‘friends’ has signed you up for. If you can’t accept this reality then you might just be the first one to get killed,” Blanc purred menacingly as he stared with glowing red eyes up at Lon’s cowering form.

Everyone was stunned into complete silence, unable to say a word.

“Well then, if that’s all, I’ll be taking my leave now~” he was once again back to his chipper persona before hopping off the table and into a little trap door in the floorboards which closed up behind him.

Even after Blanc left everyone remained silent. No one spoke as they all finished up their food and turned in for the night. They all thought over what the deranged cat had said, over and over again as if trying to find a deny or a loophole to the claim, refusing to accept the dark truth of their reality.

Before he knew it, Soraru was in his room, lying alone on his bed, Mafumafu having opted to spend the night alone in his room and Soraru needing space to ponder over the events of the day.

_A traitor and a mastermind? Among us? Is that even possible? Would one of our friends really– No, would two of our friends really do that to us? Can we even trust Blanc? _

Soraru wanted to believe his friends. He really did, but even as he kept trying to deny what Blanc said, he knew deep down that Blanc wasn’t lying to them.

Soraru just dreaded what that meant for all of them.


	6. Thoughts and Ponderings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Voting Results are in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
Here's the breakdown:
> 
> Mafumafu: 7 votes  
Amatsuki, Araki, Sou, Blanc: 6 votes  
Eve, Urata, Kashitaro: 4 votes  
Lon: 3 votes  
Reol, luz, nqrse, un:c, Senra, Shima, Soraru, Sakata, : 2 vote

“Hello~ This is an announcement~” the screen in the corner of the room screeched to life accompanied by a sickeningly familiar voice, “It is now 8 am! Daytime has now begun! Please have another wonderful day of the killing game~” With one final laugh, the screen flickered off.

Soraru cracked his eyes open at the sounds of an already familiar morning routine. Forcing himself out of the bed, once again cold and empty from the lack of anyone else sharing it with him, he went about his dull motions to get ready for another day.

He was already too sick of it all. This never-ending pain and misery that they were all forced to face every day. He wanted to go home and back to his normal life routine of making music, staying up late playing video games, going to bed and waking up whenever he felt like it.

He was exhausted. He had spent all night thinking about what Blanc had said, thinking about who it would be, thinking about it was even possible, thinking about what would happen if it was really true. Honestly, the idea scared him. Soraru wanted to trust in his friends. He wanted to believe that if they all worked together, they could make it out together. They were his friends; he should be able to trust them.

But it wasn’t so simple now with Blanc’s new information. No matter how hard he tried to sleep, the thoughts just kept plaguing him, ripping away any hope of getting rest that night.

When he finally got to sleep, he was barely able to get any time to rest before the blaring call of morning came to force him awake.

Before he knew it, he was already at the dining hall with a plate of food in front of him, staring at it blankly as the same thoughts kept consuming his mind.

A few people were already there but Soraru made no note of them other than an empty “good morning” as a formality, not even taking a moment to glance at their faces to see who it was. As more people came in, the dining hall was consumed with quiet, empty chatter as everyone warily tried to act like normal despite the apprehensive aura choking the air of the room.

The breakfast meeting went by in a snail-paced blur as everyone tried to pretend like nothing was wrong and ignore the suspicious glances they all caste towards each other and that they caste back. Finally, after a while of empty conversations on what to do that no one was truly paying attention to, Reol spoke up and voiced everyone’s thoughts that they denied that they had.

“It’s obvious we’re not going to get anything done. We’re talking in circles and no one is even listening to what they’re saying. I think we’re all too busy thinking about Blanc’s lies,” Reol sighed after failing to get everyone back on topic again.

“So you believe that Blanc was lying?” Lon questioned, peering up at the other through her eyelashes.

“What has Blanc ever done to make us trust him? He trapped us here, remember? He wants to make us suffer. I’m positive he’s lying just make us distrust and betray each other,” un:c said definitively with a hard set look in his eyes.

“We’re all friends. We all know each other. We have no reason to want to cause harm to each other. Blanc is a stranger and obviously wants to cause us harm. I think the choice of who to choose is clear,” Urata huffed, annoyed by the thought of how Blanc was attempting to set them all against each other.

“Trying to doubt and mistrust each other is pointless and will only hurt us in the end. We need to believe in each other in order to get out of here,” Eve spoke solemnly, glancing around at everyone around him, a sorrowful look taking over his face.

“Yeah! We need to believe in each other! If we work together, I know we can make it out of here!” Sou cried out to the rest of them, determination and hope filling up his face.

“Trust is the only way we are going to be able to make it out of here. If we lose sight of that and start doubting each other, then we will never be able to make it out of here!” Amatsuki exclaimed with a fiery look of hopeful faith ablaze in his eyes.

“Blanc wants us to doubt and betray each other! We just need to show that we are better than him by believing in each other and working together!” Sakata shouted with an excited sparkle lighting up his eyes at the thought of everyone making it out together.

Everyone else muttered small utterances of agreement, no one willing to fully voice their true feelings after that. Even though they all agreed to work together, Soraru could tell that some people still didn’t entirely trust everyone anymore. Even for some of the people who had preached about trust and belief. Soraru could still see the little glimpses out of the corners of their eyes.

Blanc’s words had forever driven a wedge into the group. No matter how much everyone tried to convince themselves it wasn’t true, the thought was still there, implanted in their minds, ready to be fed and nourished by doubt and fear, until it can bloom into a poisonous thorn bush, coiling around their hearts, sinking its venom into their minds and hearts, consuming them in mistrust and hate.

Before Soraru knew it, the breakfast meeting was over, and they were once again left to go look for another way out of this horrid place. Unable to find it in himself to even look anyone else in the eyes, Soraru split off with the only person he knew he could trust.

He and Mafumafu were tasked with searching around the dining hall.

After looking around it for a few hours, all they had to show for their search was the simple observations that everyone else had made hundreds of times before them. The kitchen connected to the dining hall held an enormous array of weapons that people could access at any time, the food in the refrigerator and pantry were restocked every day so they never had to worry about food, and then there was a monitor and speaker system in the corner just like in all every room. The dining hall wasn’t much more interesting. It has one large oval table that sat all sixteen of them. The dining hall also had some minor decorations, mainly pictures of beautiful landscapes of the outside and a few fake plants up top of some short bookshelves filled with recipe books and magazines, none dated anywhere near the current year.

By the time they finished, it was nearing lunchtime, so they had decided to have an early meal before the others arrived after their own finished investigations.

“Do you think it’s true?” Mafumafu asked out of nowhere, catching Soraru off guard as he looked up from his plate to glance at Mafumafu.

The other seemed to understand his glance and clarified his statement, “Do you think there is actually a traitor and a mastermind amongst us?”

Soraru attempted to clear out the lump in his throat as he responded, “Honestly, I’m not sure. I’ve been trying not to think about it, truthfully. I want to believe in everyone. They’re my friends after all but…” Soraru paused to think about the best way to phrase what he was going to say.

“I want to believe in everyone as well. We’ve all been through so much together. To think that one of us would do something so cruel… I can’t believe. I don’t want to…” Mafumafu muttered, looking down at Soraru’s plate, eyebrows furrowed in concern and confusion.

“…” Soraru couldn’t find the right words to say to respond. Noticing this, Mafumafu continued on with his thoughts.

“But I can’t get the thoughts out of my head. What if one of us really was the traitor or mastermind? Why would they do this to us? Did they ever care about us? If they cared, why did they put us here? Were they planning this from the very beginning? Were they really ever our friends? Was everything a lie?” Mafumafu started to breath heavier, tears forming in his eyes.

Soraru got up and made his way around the table, wrapping his arms around Mafumafu’s frail frame, pulling him in closer to Soraru’s body. They stayed like that for a moment, comforted by the other’s warmth.

“It doesn’t matter if one of us is actually the traitor or mastermind. Now that the thoughts are in our minds, they’re going to stay there, forever trying to make us doubt each other. Blanc did it to mess with us and it worked. These are our friends. None of them want to hurt us,” Soraru murmured into Mafumafu’s ear soothingly.

“Do you really believe that?”

“No. But I want to.”


	7. Forgetting and Ignoring

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone gave Lon 3 more votes, pushing her up to 7 votes.

Soraru and Mafumafu stayed wrapped in each other’s arms for quite a while, both refusing to leave the comforting warmth of the other’s embrace.

However, others eventually came into the dining hall looking for their lunch, forcing the two to finally split. Once again, an uneasy chatter filled that room as everyone stayed in groups that they knew they could trust eyeing all the others warily.

Mafumafu sat closely to Soraru side, Lon sat next to Soraru on the other side of Soraru with Reol sitting next to her, Kashitaro sat across from Soraru with Amatsuki across from Mafumafu, and Sou sat next Mafumafu with Eve across from him.

Reol was talking to nqrse who was sitting flanked on both sides by Araki and luz, so she didn’t notice when Lon leaned in closer to Soraru to quietly ask him a question, her voice a hushed nervous whisper as if worried that other people will overhear, “Can I get your help with something?”

“Hmm? Sure,” Soraru responded plainly, whispering back in case Lon didn’t want the others to hear. He figured it had to do with what Blanc had said since it had set everyone on edge. “When do you want to meet up?”

“How about after lunch we go to the commons together!” Lon chipperly suggested, raising her voice back up to normal levels, looking around at everyone else as if to make sure they hadn’t heard their previous exchange.

“Sounds like fun! Can I join?” Sou asked excitedly, the only person completely unfazed by the general uncomfortable atmosphere.

“I’m not su–” Soraru was about to break the news to Sou, thinking that Lon wouldn’t want anyone else there when he was interrupted.

“Sure!” Lon lightly clapped her hands together as she tilted her head to the side.

Soraru was surprised but didn’t question Lon’s decision.

When lunch was over, everyone once again split. Mafumafu went to go take a nap in his room while Lon, Sou, and Soraru all went to the common.

The common was basically like a lounge, filled with enough couches, bean bags, chairs, and other seating for all of them. There was also a snack area in the corner complete with a mini fridge with soft drinks. So far they hadn’t found any alcohol yet, though. Other than that, there were some classic arcade games, a foosball table, a pool table, and a small little shelf with a few card games including ten total sets of playing cards.

When they got to the room, Lon instantly made her way to the playing cards, taking a pack and coming back to the round table in the middle of the room.

“What do you wanna play?” Lon asked, waving the deck of cards in their view.

“Do either of you know how to play BS?” Sou suggested.

“Can we play that with three people?” Soraru said flatly.

“We can if we only use half of the deck,” Sou responded chipperly. Soraru decided not to argue and just conceded to his point.

“Alright then! BS, it is!” Lon raised up the deck triumphantly

The three of them played a few rounds of BS before moving onto other games such as Spoons (but with random items found in the room), Poker, Blackjack, and even a few rounds of Go Fish. Overall, it was really fun for Soraru as he let his mind get distracted from the horrid situation he was in and instead had fun playing games and joking around with Lon and Sou, two people he never would have had a chance to do this with under any normal circumstance.

“What do both think about love?” Lon asked out nowhere suddenly during another round of BS.

“What do you mean?” Soraru asked, completely baffled by what his friend was talking about.

“I mean, both of you are in love, obviously. Both of you either went through or are going through the crush phase, right?” Lon looked around at them, nervously fiddling with the cards in her hand. She held the most cards in her hand, taking almost half of the cards they used.

“I guess, yeah? Why?” Soraru put his cards face down onto the table. He was in second place with a third of the deck.

“Is this about Reol?” Sou asked bluntly. Taking Soraru’s cue, he also put his cards down into his lap. He was obviously in the lead, holding only four cards.

“Wha-wait-h-how? How did you know that?!” Lon cried out in embarrassed shock.

“Sorry, I thought it was kinda obvious that you liked her…” Sou desperately tried to rectify his words.

“What are you worried about?” Soraru asked gently, carrying the conversation back on topic.

“I-I was just worried about whether it’s reasonable for me to think I have a chance with her,” Lon continued to play with edges of her cards.

“Why wouldn’t you?” Sou asked, genuinely confused.

“Because… I don’t know if she even swings that way…” Lon muttered sorrowfully.

“I thought she was bi,” Soraru stated. He remembered someone once mentioning that to him, though he couldn’t remember when or where. He was pretty sure he and whoever he was with was drunk at the time.

“Even so…” Lon looked down blankly at her cards as if they could possibly give her the answers.

“What else?” Soraru carefully probed her to continue.

“I think Reol might like nqrse,” Lon sighed, placing her cards on the table face-up, by this point giving up on trying to hide what her cards were.

“What makes you think that?” Sou asked, wanting to hear what the other would say so he could help her.

“They spend so much time together and are so close and nqrse is such an amazing person! He is so pretty, prettier than most girls I know and definitely prettier than me! His voice is incredible; he is so talented as well! And – and! How could I ever compete with him!?” Lon nearly cried as she thought about her lost chances.

“I don’t think you have to worry about competing against nqrse,” Soraru tried to comfort his friend.

He knew for a fact that Reol knew about nqrse’s crushes on Araki and luz since nqrse had told Soraru about some of Reol’s advice for him. He was pretty sure that Reol had a crush on Lon since nqrse had once asked Soraru for advice on what to do in order to win Lon’s heart as a repayment to “a friend of his” that had given him advice.

“But–” Lon started to fret again.

“nqrse is already in love with someone else and Reol already knows that. Moreover, I doubt Reol sees nqrse as anything other than a close and trusted friend,” Soraru soothed his friend’s concerns.

“I think there is a strong chance that Reol likes you too! If you confess, I’m sure she’ll accept!” Sou cheered her on with a bright smile.

“Maybe… maybe when we get out of here… maybe I will confess to her,” Lon looked at her two friends hopefully before a sly smile came across her face, “as long as Sou promises to confess to Eve as well!”

“Wait, what? Why?” Sou sputtered shocked and embarrassment, face instantly turning a bright red at the mention of Eve’s name.

Lon let out a cute giggle at the sight, “Because you and Eve are perfect for each other and are so obviously in love with each other!”

“B-b-b-but!!! I-I d-don’t k-know if Eve e-even likes me back,” Sou stuttered as he tried desperately to deny that he had a chance.

“Oh don’t give me that! You two are so hopelessly oblivious! You both might just be worse than Soraru and Mafumafu! Do you know how long it took me to finally convince Soraru to finally confess?!” Lon ranted on about how oblivious Soraru and Mafumafu were and how much of a struggle it was to constantly listen to Soraru talk so longingly about Mafumafu.

“Oi!” Soraru attempted to stop his friend before she could embarrass him further, but no matter what he tried, she just kept going on.

“So in conclusion! Don’t be like those two idiots and confess already!” Lon finished with a satisfied huff.

“Alright then! I’ll choose to believe in you! When we get out of here, I will definitely tell Eve how I feel! Now we just have to work extra hard to get out of here!

The three of them continued on with their card games with Sou winning most of the games, followed by Soraru then Lon very closely behind. It was fun and relaxing, helping Soraru get his mind off of his situation so he could enjoy his time with his friends. At one point, Amatsuki and Kashitaro joined in briefly for a few games, but Kashitaro always managed to see through all of Amatsuki’s 

“Two fives,” Amatsuki said confidently, placing down his two cards with a victorious smirk.

“BS,” Kashitaro instantly called the moment the other moved his hands away.

“Wha- How?!” Amatsuki yelled, clearly upset by Kashitaro constantly calling him out.

“I always know when it comes to you,” Kashitaro winked at his lover.

Even though Kashitaro saw through all of Amatsuki’s bluffs, Amatsuki always failed to see through Kashitaro’s.

“One seven,” Kashitaro calmly placed the card down.

“BS! I know it for sure this time!” Amatsuki flipped over his boyfriend’s card, convinced that he finally caught the other only to see a smug 7 of hearts on the top of the pile. Defeated, Amatsuki placed down his cards, knowing that it was hopeless for him now that he had a severe majority of the deck. 

“Oh well, I guess you lose again. Don’t worry about though. I know you’ll win next time,” Kashitaro comforted without a hint of remorse or sympathy in his voice.

After Amatsuki consistently lost every round to Kashitaro calling him out, it was time for everyone to head to dinner. Soraru volunteered to clean everything up and let all the others go on ahead of him. Just as he finished placing the cards back into the deck holder, he heard a sickeningly familiar voice from behind him.

“Upupupupupupu~”

Soraru instantly whipped around to face behind him, backing up and nearly tripping over a chair behind him. Standing perched on top of the edge of one of the couches was Blanc.

“What do you want?” Soraru demanded, anger already seeping into his voice at the sight of the horrid creature that had trapped him and his friends inside this terrible place.

“Is it wrong to want to check up on the people I have here~? Especially if that person is someone as important was you~? Ne, So~ra~ru~san?” the cat purred out Soraru’s name, emphasizing every syllable of his name, even including the honorary suffix “-san” after it.

“Either say something useful or get lost,” Soraru bit back at the creature.

“Well then what do you want to know~ I’m an open book~” Balance purred, laying down on the couch edge leisurely.

Soraru balked at the statement. _Was it really giving Soraru free reign to ask anything he wanted?_

As if reading his mind, Blanc laughed before responding, “I’ll tell you anything you want to know~”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Blanc.”

“What are you?”

“I’m Blanc.”

“Answer my questions!”

“I am.”

“Is there really a mastermind?”

“Of course.”

“Is there really a traitor?”

“Of course.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“Who else do you have to trust?”

“My friends, obviously!”

“Can you really trust them?”

“Of course I can!”

“Do they really trust you?”

“…”

“See? Now, who do you trust?”

“Hey! I’m supposed to be asking the questions!”

“Ask away~”

“Why are we here?”

“Oh, that’s an easy one,” A menacing glint that sent a horrified shiver down Soraru’s spine lit up Blanc’s face.

“To cause you despair.”

Soraru tried to swallow the lump of fear in his throat, but he felt stuck in place, anchoring by his pathetic body betraying his mind by keeping him locked in the room with this appalling creature that keeps telling him to kill his friends.

“Anyways~” Blanc’s mood instantly turned back to bright and cheerful, like a mask that can easily be taken on and off with a swift flick of a wrist. “It’s dinnertime, isn’t it? I wouldn’t want you to be too late to meet up with your “friends.” Who knows? They might just start to become suspicious of you.”

His words somehow managed to snap Soraru out of his stupor as he jerkily made his way out of the common to the dining hall. He knew that his face was pale and that he was probably sweating with a face that looked like he had seen a monster, but he didn’t know what to do about it as he headed into the dining hall to commence his meeting with everyone.

The meeting passed by simply enough with everyone reporting the same that they had found nothing new today again. Even with the outcomes of each investigation known, they still went through the full process of one by one going over what they (did not) see and what they (did not) find. Eventually, it came to Mafumafu and Soraru’s group as they also had to tell everyone that they did nothing of use and found nothing that could help them escape.

After the uneventful meeting, they all moved to split up for the night, Soraru and Mafumafu having already agreed to stay in Mafumafu’s room for the night. Just as they reached Mafumafu’s room, Soraru recalled what had happened the previous time they had tried to stay the night.

“Oh, I should get a pair of clothes from my room,” Soraru suggested as he recalled realizing that neither had clothes in the other’s room.

“Huh? Oh, I suppose you should. I don’t think anything of mine would look right on you,” Mafumafu nodded sheepishly, having almost completely forgotten about that issue himself.

“Just wait in the room for me. I won’t be long,” Soraru gave Mafumafu a pat on the head as he ruffled Mafumafu’s hair, earning a cute giggle from the younger.

“Alright then! Don’t take too long Soraru-san!” Mafumafu cheerfully made his way into his room to await Soraru’s return.

With something to look forward to, Soraru quickly made his way over to his dorm. However, when he got to his room and tried to take out his tablet so that he could unlock his door, he couldn’t find it. He searched around his body for a second before realizing that he must have forgotten his tablet in the common when Blanc had shown up.

Sighing, Soraru made his way to the common, hoping Mafumafu would be too upset at his for taking so long.

When Soraru pushed open the door to the common, he noticed that somebody was already in there. Araki was sitting, fiddling with his fingers, on one of the bean bags. He looked up when Soraru came in only to let out a startled exclamation when he saw who it was.

“Oh! Soraru!” he looked shocked to see Soraru in the doorway and Soraru could see what seemed to be the slightest traces of disappointment cross his face, if only for a moment.

“Were you expecting someone else?” Soraru asked, raising an eyebrow at his friend’s odd behavior.

“Huh? Uh, no – well, yeah, but – it’s not like I’m disappointed to see you or anything,” Araki stuttered through his explanation before finally managing to get out “it’s just that nqrse and luz went out to get some stuff from the storage area and while I knew it would take a bit of time, I just thought one of them might have left something behind or something like that.”

“So the three of you are hanging out?” Soraru thought allowed.

“Well, of course, we are friends after all,” Araki said with ease.

“Even though you both you and luz like nqrse?” Soraru asked bluntly.

“H-h-huh?” Araki nearly choked out, his face completely frozen with complete shock.

“I know both you and luz like nqrse. Honestly, it’s not fair to keep him split up between the two of you. Or worse, having to choose one of you over the other,” Soraru stated, a truly serious look on his face.

“T-then what do you pr-propose I do?” Araki asked, still stunned and aghast at what Soraru was telling him.

“I think you should act first and confess to nqrse. If you keep dragging him between you and luz, eventually you all will lose. If you choose now and choose for nqrse by confessing to him, you will end up saving a lot of pain for all of you in the future,” Soraru finally managed to get out the piece of advice that he had been holding onto since nqrse first told Soraru about his predicament.

“A-alright… I’ll – I’ll think about… it…” Araki trailed off, not really looking convinced by what Soraru had told him.

“B-by the way,” Araki quickly attempted to change the subject, “why are you here?”

“Me? Oh, I just forgot my tablet here earlier,” Soraru glanced around the room, instantly spotting his tablet on the round table that he had played cards on earlier. Easily walking over and swiping up his lost device, Soraru turned and made his way back out towards the door before glancing back to impart some final words of advice, “Just think about okay?”

With that, Soraru left to go back to his room. Realizing that he’s already taken long enough, Soraru just grabbed the first clothes he could get his hands on and quickly rushed to Mafumafu’s room.

When he entered the younger’s room, he found him sitting on his bed, shifting around and fiddling with his fingers nervously. Upon Soraru entering, Mafumafu snapped his head up to see who had just come into his room. When he saw Soraru at his door, his face instantly lit up and he ran over to the other to happily greet him.

“Soraru-san! What took you so long?! I was so worried!” Mafumafu whined, holding onto the other for dear life.

“Sorry. I forgot my tablet in the common, so I had to go get it. I’m sorry for making you wait,” Soraru apologized profusely to his lover, kissing him a few times just to try and help show just how much he regretted making the younger upset.

“You forgot it?” Mafumafu asked before letting out a cute giggle, “that sounds so much like Soraru-san.”

“Oi,” Soraru said deadpan, “should we start preparing to go to sleep?”

“Sure thing!” Mafumafu cheered, still giggling to himself.

When the two finally settled in for the night, Mafumafu safely tucked into Soraru’s arms in a warm and comforting embrace, the two of the basked in being so close together and how much they loved each other.

Soon enough, the soft embrace of sleep washed over them as they let themselves drift off together, kept safe by each other’s body heat so close to theirs.

Soraru one final thought back over the events of that day before he completely drifted off to sleep was: He really hoped that they would be able to get out soon. For everyone’s sake.


	8. A Traitor Among Us

“Do any of you know of ‘Monokuma’?" nqrse’s cautiously timid voice cutting through the dull morning chatter of the round table as everyone paused from their breakfast to glance at nqrse as his eyes scanned around at all of his friends’ reactions as if desperately searching for some thin veil of hope beyond his misery.

"Mono… kuma…?" Soraru repeated in a questioning manner as if mirroring his friends’ wary attitude, gently placing down his fork still coated with a layer of eyes as he gave his friend his full attention, confused as to what he was asking.

"nqrse... what are you talking about?" Araki lightly probed, carefully leaning towards his best friend, concern and confusion written all over his face, hand itching with a creep to try and lay on the other’s shoulders before deciding against the action and simply laying it next to his plate of pancakes.

"What is ‘Monokuma’?" Eve asked, a look of dreaded intrigue painted across his face as if he very idea of the answer scared him, but he couldn’t live without knowing what the other meant.

Taking a shaking breath, nqrse gulped down the noticeable lump in his throat. "I-I think it would be easier to show you..." nqrse muttered as he scrambled around for something to write on before Sou managed to provide a small napkin and a pen to him.

It took a few seconds, but once it was done, nqrse lifted up a small crude drawing of a bear-like thing, but while one half of its face was a normal-ish white bear face, the other was black with a red lightning-bolt-thing (?) and a large, sharp, toothy smile.

"This – This is Monokuma," nqrse held up his drawing, his voice slight cracking as he said that. His hands held a noticeable shake to them as he showed off the drawing to everyone around him.

It was an odd thing, to say the least. Soraru himself had never seen anything like that in his life. It looked like a cartoon villain in Soraru’s eyes with its exaggeratedly evil appearance. It seemed like such an odd thing to bring up at this time. Nonetheless, the look of fear and dread on nqrse’s face was enough to convince Soraru that whatever this was, it was no laughing matter.

“What? What is that?” Urata studied the picture with a confused intensity as if he too was questioning what on earth had nqrse just showed them.

Looking around the room, Soraru saw that all of his friends held similar expressions of confusion and concern. None of them knew what nqrse was talking about, but all of them were terrified to find out.

“I-I see… So none of you h-have seen this b-before…” nqrse forced out of his lips, stumbling over his words as he did. His bangs shifted as he moved his head down, covering his eyes in the shadow, concealing his complete expression from Soraru’s view.

“What is it?” Reol asked, a serious look passing over her eyes as she repeated the one question everyone had been asking ever since nqrse brought up this ‘Monokuma.’

“I-I” nqrse hesitated as if afraid of his own answer by this point. He took a deep breath, refusing the eye contact of any of his concerned friends, “I’m not sure myself… I just– I just feel as if… I know its… I know it’s important… I don’t know how – or why, but…” nqrse struggled to grasp for words, quickly glancing up before adverting his eyes back down to his untouched plate of food.

“nqrse,” Kashitaro called out, speaking above the now nonsensical rambles of the other, “could you–” He cut himself off as if giving himself the time to properly ponder what he was about to say, “please don’t get upset by this, but could you be the traitor?” Kashitaro asked, looking at the pink-haired male dead in the eyes as he asked that.

“H-hey now, wait a minute!” it was luz who was the first to get over the stunned silence after Kashitaro had asked that. “What do you mean ‘nqrse is the traitor’!? Are you out of your mind!?” luz practically shouted, already starting to move up from his seat, leaning on the table to stare down Kashitaro.

“H-hey! I-I didn’t necessarily mean it in such a negative way!” Kashitaro defended, throwing up his hands in a defensive manner as luz leaned over him.

“nqrse would never try to hurt any of us! He’s our friend! How could you accuse him of that!” Araki followed back luz’s claim with an exclamation of his own.

“D-don’t fight! Hey!” Amatsuki called, attempting to get in between the two as they started to argue.

“What do you mean ‘not in a negative way’? You’re accusing nqrse of betraying us! How can that not be negative?!” un:c joined in, his eyebrows pinched in a concerned yet frustrated fashion.

“I mean, you have to admit that it is odd that he knows all of that right?” Senra added in, attempting to defend Kashitaro from the outrage of everyone else at the table.

“P-please! I’m not the traitor!” nqrse pleaded, desperately trying to rectify the situation and get his friends to stop arguing.

“Then, explain how you knew what all that about that ‘Monokuma’?” Sakata asked, wanting desperately to believe in his friend’s innocence.

“We don’t even know if this ‘Monokuma’ is even related to what we’re doing. For all we know, ‘Monokuma’ might not even have anything to do with us. It was a shot in the dark. You can’t blame nqrse for trying to do something,” Urata attempted to reason out, adding his own input into the discussion.

“But even so, that was still an oddly specific thing to draw all of our attention to, and beside that, nqrse kept an insistence that it was important,” Eve said almost silently. The moment the words left his mouth he seemed to regret them deeply.

“Can we please not fight about this? I don’t want to have to suspect my friends!” Lon cried out, grabbing onto the sides of her head desperately as she pleaded for everyone to just stop.

“I’m sorry, Lon. But we have to find the truth,” Reol attempted to comfort the other as she looked around at the arguing group.

“Reol,” nqrse’s voice echoed with disbelief, “do you… really suspect me?” He looked at his trusted friend with pleading eyes, only to be filled with heartbreak as she looked away from his gaze in shame.

“But I agree with Lon, shouting like this is getting us nowhere. We’re just shouting in circles at this point,” Soraru added in, deciding it was about time to add himself into the conversation as well.

Soraru looked around at the group, trying to see who had and had not added to the conversation. It seemed Mafumafu, Sou, and Shima were the only ones who hadn’t spoken up yet.

Shima seemed to be lost deep in thought as if trying to conjure up an important clue to add to the discussion while Sou was intently watching the debate with anguished eyes.

Mafumafu’s quietness was what struck Soraru, however. It was odd to Soraru, seeing that he thought Mafumafu would have jumped at the opportunity to defend his friend. Instead, he sat in his seat, staring down at his now cold plate of food with a troubled look on his face.

“I agree that we shouldn’t be fighting, though. I don’t believe that nqrse could be so awful as to try and betray us or want us here,” Sou added his piece to the matter finally.

“But remember what Blanc said,” Shima said thoughtfully, his forehead scrunched as he attempted to recall the white cat’s exact words, “he said, ‘the traitor knows more than they’re letting on.’ Nowhere in that does it say the traitor is particularly against us.”

“Wait, do you mean…?” Urata gasped in realization.

“nqrse could still be the traitor, but still be on our side?” luz asked, almost dumbfounded by the thought.

“Wa-wait-wait-wait,” nqrse frantically waved his hands as everyone’s faces turned serious with contemplation. “I’m not the traitor, honest! I think I would know if I knew more than the rest of you!”

“Not necessarily. You could be just as in the dark about the traitor’s identity as the rest of us,” Eve pondered with a thoughtfully troubled face. “Again, how did you know of ‘Monokuma’?”

“I-I…uh… I don’t know… it was just kinda… there…” nqrse struggled with what to say, catching himself at a loss on what to think about the situation anymore.

“But… if not even you knew that you were the traitor then…” Sakata spoke aloud as he tried to grasp what was happening, “how do we know what you know?”

“I-I don’t…” nqrse breathed out. He seemed completely overwhelmed by what was happening, like he himself was still just trying to wrap his head around the situation at hand.

“But if you really are the traitor, that means you know a lot more than the rest of us. Some of that information has to be useful,” Soraru felt bad for forcing his friend into such a stressful predicament, but he needed to say something. For the sake of getting everyone out of here.

Nqrse pursed his lips before gulping down once again. “You’re right. If I am the traitor, even if I don’t know I’m the traitor, then I must know something valuable, something about this place or this ‘game’ as Blanc calls it. So for everyone. To get us out of here. I’ll– I’ll do my best, as the traitor, to find out what that is and get us out of here!”


	9. The Start of a New Reality

“Hello~ This is an announcement~” the screen in the corner of the room screeched to life accompanied by a sickeningly familiar voice, “It is now 8 am! Daytime has now begun! I know you’ll all have an absolutely wondrously glorious day of the killing game~” With one final laugh, the screen flickered off.

“I hate Blanc,” Soraru muttered darkly as he attempted to remove the sleep from his eyes.

“Sowawu-san~” Mafumafu rolled over, smothering his face into Soraru’s chest, rubbing his head against the other in a cat-like motion, “I don’t wanna get up~” A small yawn forced its way through Mafumafu’s lips then travelled over to Soraru as he copied the motion.

Soraru severely wished that he could stay in bed, snuggled up close to Mafumafu all morning as the two of them drifted in and out of sleep, comforted by the other’s embrace. The younger’s warmth clung to Soraru’s body, leaching away all of his will to move from his spot on the bed.

_What’s the point in getting up? Why did we have to wake up at ungodly hours of the morning? Would it really be that bad to stay in bed? What would happen if we decided to sleep in today? Could Blanc really even do anything to us if we decided to stay asleep?_

Just as Soraru was seriously contemplating falling back asleep with Mafumafu, possible punishments or consequences be damned, he heard a soft sigh resound from next to him. From his half-asleep state, Soraru felt Mafumafu shuffle and get out of bed, wiggling out of Soraru’s embrace to do so.

“Come on, it’s time to get up Soraru-san,” despite not looking like he wanted to get up either, Mafumafu made his way out of bed, attempting to drag Soraru with him as they made their way to the washroom.

His hair was a mess, a white mass sticking up in every direction like he had been shocked with electricity. His eyes could barely stay open, occasionally drooping down as he almost fell asleep standing up. His clothes were a rumbled heap on his body, falling off his shoulder and almost sliding down his arm on one side due to how his clothes were always so oversized. Another cat-like yawn escaped his lips as he put a hand over his mouth, body nearly toppling over due to the force of the yawn.

Soraru smiled fondly at the sight, a content chuckle escaping his lips at his lover’s sleepy antics.

Though, like all things, even peaceful moments like these must come to an end as Soraru remembered that they had to prepare to get ready for the day ahead of them. Sighing, Soraru forcefully dragged his body out of bed and went to the washroom to clean up.

After a minor incident when Soraru tried to peek at Mafumafu changing, the two of them left Mafumafu’s room to head out to the dining all.

Since it was already pretty late by the time they arrived, almost everyone was already there, chatting amongst themselves, a calmer ease filling the room unlike in the days before. It seemed that now that the traitor having been revealed as nqrse, everyone was feeling more trusting towards each other. Especially with the knowledge that traitor was not against them and was instead going to help them find out the mysteries of this place to help them leave.

Speaking of which, looking around, Soraru couldn’t see nqrse. The other was probably still asleep, seeing as how he said that he would be working through the night to try and find more clues. Soraru decided to let it go and went to go get him and Mafumafu food.

Settling down into his seat, setting Mafumafu’s food in front of him, Soraru glanced up at the time briefly. It was getting closer to the meeting time. Everyone else was already at the dining hall except for nqrse who still hadn’t shown up yet. Looking around at the others, it seemed a few of his friends were also starting to wonder where nqrse was.

It was Reol who finally spoke everyone’s concerns, “Hey, where is nqrse?”

The dining hall went silent at that, everyone looking around at everyone else for some sort of answer or explanation. But no one spoke up as the atmosphere turned tense.

“luz? Araki?” Soraru looked at the two who had naturally left a space between themselves for the missing person to sit. “Out of anyone, shouldn’t you know where he is?” seeing as you both are completely infatuated with him, but Soraru left that last part out.

“He just said that he was going to do some investigating on his own last night…” luz gulped slightly, uncomfortable with suddenly being put on the spot like that.

Araki made a small agreement with luz’s statement, his face turning pale with an uneasy dread.

“Why don’t we just check his room?” Reol prompted professionally, keeping all emotion out of her face as she glanced around the room calmly.

“But, the meeting time is going to start soon… what’ll happen if we aren’t here?” un:c questioned concernedly.

Suddenly, a horribly familiar voice pierced the room’s tense atmosphere with s sicken laugh, “Upupupupu!”

Blanc appeared out of the trap door in the floor, springing up and onto the table, landing in front of Mafumafu who instantly moved to hide behind Soraru. Soraru did his best to cover Mafumafu from the terrible creature while trying not to get too close to it himself.

“So, nqrse is missing, is he? It’s a terrible thing to not come to breakfast! After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day! And, to miss a meeting set up by his friends? How irresponsible! He better have a good excuse for this!” Blanc lectured all of them, pacing around the table, eliciting a variety of reactions from the many people seated there.

“What do you want?” Kashitaro asked pointedly once the cat passed a cowering Amatsuki and moved in front of him, completely fed up with Blanc’s antics.

“I just want to make sure that you all follow the rules here! Rules are very important and no one person is above them!” Blanc declared pompously, his tail flicking a little as he spoke, his eyes glowing red in rage. “So, as to teach all rule-breakers a lesson, I want you all to go get your tardy friend and find out the reason why we decided that he could break the rules! Maybe and only if it’s a good enough reason, I will allow it. But it better be a super good reason, like he died or something!”

With that warning, Blanc once again slipped under the trap door and left everyone to figure out what to do with the new instructions they received.

“So… what should we do?” Senra asked into the tense air of the dining hall.

“It’s obvious, right? We should send out a small group to go check on him,” Shima suggested, nervously.

“Then who’s going to go?” Amatsuki looked around, scared who would take up the responsibility.

In the end, it was decided that Reol, Araki, luz, Urata, Soraru, Mafumafu, and Eve would go to check up on him. Soraru felt uneasy as they all moved from the dining all to the dorm rooms, an uncomfortable chatter filling the air as the seven of them made their way through the halls of the building.

“Do you – do you actually think Blanc is going to do anything?” Mafumafu asked, fiddling with his hands as he walked, trailing at the back of the group.

“He can’t really do too much, right? I mean, it was probably an earnest mistake. Nqrse probably just slept through his alarm or something,” Urata reasoned nervously as if trying to convince himself more than the others that it would be alright.

“Who knows how that insane thing’s mind works. He is the one that trapped us all here after all,” Eve grimaced at his own dark tone of voice.

“Yeah, but–” Mafumafu’s statement was cut off by Reol, reaching the door.

“We’re here,” she said solemnly as if dreading every moment that they spent there.

Araki moved up to the door, pressing the intercom button and speaking into the door pad, “nqrse, are you in there? It’s us; can you open up?”

After saying that, he stepped back a bit, waiting. Only silence permeated the anxious void. When no response came, he tried again, “nqrse? Are you okay? Can you please open up?”

When no response came again, a wave of horrible dread washed over all of them as they rooted in place in fear of what was going to happen. After a few more attempts by Araki to get nqrse to respond, it was Urata who spoke up.

“Who is able to open his door? Only people with permission, right?” Urata asked, glancing around the group, particularly looking at Araki and luz.

“Yeah, I can open the door,” luz said, his voice a little hoarse as he volunteered, bringing out his tablet to swipe along the door’s pad, clicking it unlocked.

They all looked around at each other, a heavy air of dread and uneasy tension filling the void as no one wanted to volunteer to open the door. In the end, Soraru couldn’t take it, his worry over his friend overtaking his fear of what was going to happen.

Moving up to take the handle, Soraru powered through the anxiety of his body, screaming at him not to do it and forced himself to move open the door.

…

A horrid silence took over everyone for a moment as they all paused to take in the scene in front of them. Right in front of them, right in front of all of them was the proof of their new reality.

“Hello~ This is an announcement~ A body has been discovered~! Please head over to nqrse-chan’s room immediately~~ Once you all arrive at nqrse-chan’s room, I will explain the rules of the investigation~ Congratulation on starting the killing game!” the screen in corner of nqrse’s room once again flickered to life, this time with a different message. One that left Soraru breathless and terrified.

The sounds of rushing footsteps could be heard as the rest of their friends heard the announcement and came running. Once they all arrived, they too were caught in a horrified, stunned silence.

Out of the cracks of a place Soraru wasn’t paying attention to, a white creature entered Soraru’s peripheral vision. Soraru could only dully register the thing’s words.

“You will have one hour to complete your investigation and gather evidence to determine who you believe the blackened who killed nqrse is. To aid you in your investigation, a new section called ‘evidence’ has been added to your tablets. Also, many places that are normally restricted to you, such as the other gender’s restrooms and all of your classmates’ rooms, are now free game for investigating.”

“After your investigation, you will be sent to the trial grounds where you will debate and present your arguments. Once you come to a conclusion on who you think it is, you will all have the chance to vote for the blackened, but choose wisely because if you chose the wrong person, then every one of you will die and blackened may leave here to walk free once again. Good luck~!”

Silence pervaded the room once more before

Lon screamed, then Sou fainted, then luz fell onto his knees with a sob, then Araki grabbed his head and cried out, then un:c turned away to puke, then chaos and disbelief. Everything was an overbearing cacophony that shook Soraru to the core, but it also an echoing silent as Soraru denied any existence of what was happening around him.

Soraru didn’t want to believe it was real. In front of him was nqrse, sitting on the floor, slumped over, unmoving, unbreathing. He sat at the foot of his bed, his back to the edge of the corner of his bed, facing the door. His body was slumped over as if he had fallen asleep, his legs outstretched slightly bent in a comfortable way in front of him. His hands laid splayed out to the sides of him, resting unmovingly. His bangs covered his face, but peeking through from under his hair was a thin trace of crimson, trailing down from his lip.

Though Soraru tried to deny it, looking anywhere but there, he couldn’t ignore the most potent detail of how nqrse looked, mainly, the bloody stab wound straight through nqrse’s chest. The blade was still there, lodged within nqrse’s skin, sticking proudly out of his body as if advertising it’s good work, surrounded by a fanfare of red soaking through nqrse’s clothing.

Soraru couldn’t breathe, the stench of blood holding on too thickly to the air for Soraru to get oxygen into his lungs.

_This wasn’t happening. This was a dream. It had to be. There was no way this was real. _

Somehow, through some reasonings, they managed to convince themselves to start investigating. Soraru didn’t even know how they could, but then again, he knew everyone else felt the same way.

Soraru couldn’t even payed attention to the other’s as they all split into smaller groups of two and one group of three due to the now odd number and they all delegated tasks and places to investigate to each group, making sure that more than one group had a task to minimize the possibility of tampering with evidence just in case one of them truly was the killer.

Once everyone had left, there were only four people in the room. Soraru and Mafumafu were put into a group together as they were tasked with investigating the room. The other group, Eve and Sou, were supposed to investigate the body. Soraru wasn’t sure how they were the ones stuck with the task, but Eve seemed to be begrudgingly following his task and cautiously looking around the body while poor Sou, seemed to be attempting to look everywhere the body.

Soraru turned back to his own task as he glanced around the room. The main that stuck out to him was the giant chalkboard lining the far side of the room. It was a standard chalkboard with a little tray on the bottom edge of it that held many little sticks of messy white chalk and an eraser rag on it. Looking at the board, Soraru could see the messy scribbled wiped away chalk that had been messily left without properly being cleaned up.

Due to the mess, Soraru wasn’t able to tell what had once been written on the board, but whatever it was, the owner of the board did not want it to be seen. This was especially clear since even the edges of the board were wiped away, making sure that every last inch of writing had been erased without a trace of a possibility of finding out what had once been behind it.

Soraru heard a little ding come from his tablet. Glancing at it, he saw a little message displayed on the screen:

_New Evidence: Messy Chalkboard_

When Soraru tapped on it, another message appeared:

_New Evidence: Used Chalk_

That seemed to be all the messages as Soraru put away his tablet again. He glanced over to see that Mafumafu had gotten similar messages on his own tablet.

Soraru turned to look at the body only to quickly turn back when he saw Eve examining the knife that had been inside of the body.

“What do you think was written here?” Soraru posed, his voice cracking and wavering barely above a whisper as he turned to look at Mafumafu who had been silent beside him.

“Who knows…” Mafumafu coarsely whispered back, still in shock at all that was happening.

“I suppose we’ll never know what he found…” Soraru stared blankly at the chalk covered board.

“W-why… why did… why did nqrse have to die?” Mafumafu began to choke on his own tears.

Soraru instantly moved to hug Mafumafu, doing his best to comfort his lover while he himself was still in shock from all that was happening.

They spent a moment like that, Soraru wrapping his arms tightly around Mafumafu as he let the younger get out his tears and sorrow. He didn’t know what to do. There was nothing he really could do. All he could do was try to offer support and try to just be there for Mafumafu. But the situation they were in was hopeless.

As Mafumafu let out all of his tears, Soraru felt the younger grow exhausted in his arms. Noticing a desk and a chair similar to the one both Soraru and Mafumafu had in their own respective rooms, Soraru decided to let Mafumafu rest there.

As he set Mafumafu down onto the desk chair to rest, Soraru caught a glimpse of a little trash bin at his feet. He had a similar one in his room, except in this one, Soraru saw a single little wadded up piece of paper sitting alone in the bin.

Curiosity won the best of him as he reached to pick it.

Soraru’s head swam.

_This isn’t real, right? It is a lie, right? It can’t be real, right? No, it can’t be. It isn’t. This is just another lie. Just like this game. It’s all lies. Nothing is real. This note isn’t real. _

_But then, what is the alternative if it really isn’t real. _

Despite his best efforts to convince himself that what he was looking at wasn’t real. His mind betrayed him once again as he smoothed out the paper and folded it into his pocket.

When he got up from the floor, he was accompanied by a little ding on his tablet.

_New Evidence: Nqrse’s Final Message_


	10. Arc 1 Trail Part 1

Soraru’s mind was a mess. He couldn’t concentrate as he fumbled around on nqrse’s desk, “investigating” as he moved around things without really looking at them. At some point, Mafumafu started to feel better and came to help Soraru, but even the presence of the other did nothing to sooth Soraru’s aching nerves.

He couldn’t properly take in his surroundings, not even as a blaring voice came over the speaker telling all of them that the investigation was over and to head to the front foyer, and he couldn’t begin to process when the giant statue of Blanc started to move, doing a cat-stretch as if waking up from a nap and moving to reveal a hidden staircase beneath it which lead to an elevator that took them all down to a giant room with a circle of podiums that each had one of their names listed on them with one podium sporting a faded picture of nqrse with a swirly red “x” over his face.

At their podiums, they were greeted with the sight of a tablet hooked up to the podium, proudly displaying all the evidence that they had collected.

Once they had all settled behind their podium, Blanc appeared on the giant throne that took up the size of four podiums. The order at which they all stood, starting with Blanc, was Mafumafu, Soraru, Araki, Reol, Lon, Amatsuki, Sakata, Eve (directly across from Blanc), Senra, Urata, Sou, un:c, luz, Shima, Kashitaro, nqrse (or at least nqrse’s picture), and finally Blanc again.

Seeing all of them in their place, Blanc spoke up, “Now then, let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trail. During the trial, you’ll present your arguments for who you think the blackened is and, at the end of the trial, vote for that person. If the real culprit gets the most votes, then only they will receive punishment. But if someone who is not the blackened gets the most votes, I’ll punish everyone besides the blackened, and that person will gain the right to leave this place. Also, refusing to vote will result in your death, so you better vote even if you are unsure. So with that out of the way, let’s get this amazingly, wonderfully, despairingly, thrillingly incredible trial underway!”

Soraru was too stunned to speak. Everyone else seemed to be going through the same thing. Silence took over the room as no one even knew where to start.

It wasn’t until Eve spoke up that they were able to grab bearings of their surroundings once again.

“We need to find out who did this. We need to find out who killed… who killed nqrse…” Eve said, voice barely cracking above a whisper.

“Then how do you propose we start?” Reol asked, trying not to show how disturbed she was about the entire situation.

“I think we should start off by discussing the murder weapon,” Eve said with hesitant confidence as if unsure whether to be sure of himself. A message appeared on his screen, showing a piece of evidence called _Bloody Knife_ and displaying a picture of just that.

“Wait, why do we need to talk about this?” un:c asked, his face scrunching up in confusion.

“Yeah, the murder weapon is kinda obvious…” Kashitaro nervously made a facial expression somewhere between a wary smile and a grimace. 

“Don’t skirt around the issue. It’s obvious that the murder weapon was the kitchen knife,” luz said deadpan as he looked at Eve dead in the eyes as if daring him to try and waste their time.

“I wasn’t talking about identifying the murder weapon. I wanted to talk about how the… blackened…” Eve paused to find the right word before making a sour face at how the word sounded to him, “got the knife.”

“You mean as in when they had managed to get a hold of it?” Senra looked perplexed as if trying to recall memories of his own.

“Exactly. Who were the last people to investigate the dining hall?” Eve looked around the group.

“That would be Soraru and I,” Mafumafu spoke up, “but that was before we even knew that nqrse was the traitor.”

“Even so, it’ll help us determine whether this murder was planned before or after that reveal,” Eve explained calmly.

“If I remember correctly, though, all the knives were there when we investigated it,” Mafumafu looked like he was deep in thought while saying that, causing a cute crease to form above his eyebrows.

“But when Shima and I looked in the dining hall during the investigation, one of the knives was already missing,” Senra looked completely stumped by the issue. Another piece of evidence came onto his screen called _Missing Kitchen Knife_ and displaying an image of the knife rack in the dining hall with one slot empty.

“No, duh the knife was gone! We can gather the knife was gone the moment nqrse’s body turned up with the knife in him!” Urata chided his friend, not paying attention to his words and just how they sounded.

“Uratan, p-please, nqrse was our friend,” Sakata muttered nervously.

“O-oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to say it like that…” Urata said, looking regretful and guilty at what he had just said about his friend.

“Did anyone here check the dining hall during the time from when Soraru and Mafumafu investigated and when… when the body was discovered?” Kashitaro swallowed slightly, making sure to choose his words carefully.

“Last night, I made a late dinner for nqrse since he showed up late and didn’t get a chance to eat before the meeting. When I was preparing it, all the knives where still there,” Araki spoke up as he looked down at his hands resting on his podium.

“Did you take one of them?” Shima asked, bluntly without considering his words.

“No! I didn’t! I put them all back in place!” Araki defended, startled and offended by the sudden accusation.

“Yeah, nqrse and I were there with him while he cooked. If he took a knife, we would have seen!” luz instantly backed up his friend’s claim.

“S-sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” Shima apologized, realizing his poor word choice.

“It’s fine…” Araki gave a nervous smile as an acceptance to his apology.

“When was that?” Sou asked earnestly.

“Probably a bit before nighttime, by the time we finished and left the dining hall,” Araki said thoughtfully.

“Did anyone else enter while you were there?” Lon asked nervously.

“No, it was only us while we were there,” luz thought for a moment before responding.

“Did anyone else look at the knives from nighttime to this morning?” Amatsuki looked around the room as he asked.

Silence filled the space as no one spoke up.

“So that means that the ‘blackened’ could have gone to grab the knife any time from nighttime to this morning,” Eve pondered aloud.

“I doubt any of us could possibly have an alibi for that time, seeing how most of us would have been asleep at some point during that time frame,” Urata cringed at just how wide the possibility was.

“Well actually,” Mafumafu spoke up, “Soraru and I slept in the same room last night.”

Soraru gave a deft nod in confirmation.

“Oh… I see… So it was like that…” Amatsuki looked away, blushing from second-hand embarrassment.

“Wha-? No! It wasn’t! We were just cuddling!” Mafumafu quickly tried to defend himself, waving his hands frantically. “Anyway! That means Soraru and I both have alibis!”

“Alright then, does anyone else have alibis for either most of or all of the night?”

“Actually, Araki and I spent most of the night together,” luz glanced at the other before quickly avoiding eye contact with everyone else.

“Really? What were you two doing?” Lon asked curiously.

“We were just chatting. Normally, nqrse would have been with us but he wanted to be alone so he could try to figure out what he knew as the traitor…” Araki swallowed the lump in his throat as he nearly choked on his words.

“We also can probably assume that neither luz nor Araki did this as well then…” Shima muttered thoughtfully.

“But that still leaves a lot of possibility for anyone else,” Sakata’s eyebrows creased in frustrated concern.

“Not necessarily,” Eve pondered aloud, “Remember, in order to get into someone else’s room, you either need to open the door for them or you need to give them permission to unlock your door with their tablet.

“Yeah, but nqrse could have just let them into his room. I don’t think he would have denied anyone from entering his room,” Urata countered Eve’s claim.

“Araki, luz, think back, do you think nqrse would have opened the door for anyone that night,” Eve glanced at the two males.

“Actually, nqrse was still kind of nervous about being the traitor since it was such a big target on his back. During the day, he expressed concerns about being alone, so I don’t think he would have opened the door unless it was someone he really trusted,” luz started wistfully at nqrse’s picture.

“nqrse didn’t even want luz and I in his room. Although I know he would have opened the door for us, I don’t think we would easily let other people into his room. The only people who could have gotten into his room were the people he trusted enough to give them access to his room beforehand,” Araki refused to look up at everyone as he thought about nqrse.

“Then who had access to his room? Do you know?” Lon looked between luz and Araki nervously, hoping that one of them knew the answer.

“I only know that both luz and I could enter his room,” Araki said, and luz gave a nod of conformation.

“Hey, Blanc, can you tell us?” Mafumafu looked at the cat that had just been perched up on his throne, gazing down at all of their petty arguments.

“I can give you that information! The people that nqrse gave permission to unlock his room were,” Blanc paused for dramatic effect, “Araki, luz, Reol, and Soraru.”

A new piece of evidence was added Soraru’s arsenal: _Permission to Enter Room_ along with an image of Araki’s, luz’s, Reol’s, and Soraru’s faces side by side.

“Oh?” Sou let out a startled sound, “I figured Araki and luz, but I didn’t expect Reol and Soraru.”

“But, of those people, Araki, luz, and Soraru are all in the clear,” Senra pondered thoughtfully.

“But that means!” Sou gasped at the realization.

“Reol is the only one out of that list that could have done it!” Senra finished the younger’s thought.

“Huh? But wait a minute! I didn’t even know I had that permission!” Reol creased her eyebrows as she looked through he tablet only to find that she indeed did have that permission.

“How could you not have known?” Senra asked suspiciously.

“Actually, I didn’t know I had permission either. Nqrse must have just given it to us without telling us,” Soraru finally spoke up after having not said a word the entire trial.

Eve nodded, taking in that information before turning back to Reol, “What were you doing last night?”

“I went to sleep when nighttime started. I only left my room when the daytime announcement came on. I went straight to the dining hall where _you_ already were,” Reol said confidently.

“A-actually,” an objection came from across the room.

“I… I saw… Reol… out late last night…” un:c said, keeping his head down as he betrayed his friend.

“Wait! What? What are you implying by that?” Reol demanded as all eyes turned towards her.

“I’m sorry! But it’s the truth! I did!” un:c defended himself.

“Do you really think I did this?” Reol shouted, appalled by the thought.

“I don’t know! But you can’t deny the fact that you were out late last night which is suspicious!” un:c shouted back at her.

“Reol, what were you doing last night?” Kashitaro asked cautiously, attempting to calm the escalating situation.

“Are you really suspecting me?” Reol turned her fiery gaze to Kashitaro who visibly flinched at the sight.

“I-it’s not like that…” Kashitaro weakly tried to divert attention from himself.

“We just want to know so we can clear suspicion of you,” Lon tried to help Reol calm down.

“Well, if you must know, I went to go get some desert from the kitchen,” Reol huffed in annoyance.

“You went to the kitchen?” Sakata clarified.

“Where the knife is…” Amatsuki said softly as if hoping that no one else would hear him.

“Hey, now wait a minute!” Reol slammed her hands down on the podium.

“Was there anyone else entering or exiting the kitchen when you were there?” Mafumafu tried to help find some sort of defense for his friend.

“No, I was the only one there the entire time…” Reol forced out through gritted teeth.

“When you were there, did you check to see how many knives where there?” Eve asked.

“No, I just went into the kitchen, got the desert, then went to the dining hall to eat it,” Reol breathed, trying to force herself to calm down as everyone started to regard her with suspicious eyes.

_This isn’t going to work. At this rate, they’ll actually start to believe that Reol is the culprit._

Soraru needed to do something. For the sake of his friends.

“I think…” Soraru’s throat felt dry as he forced his lips to move, regretting every second that he chose to disobey the voice inside his head, screaming at his that this was the worst idea ever.

“Soraru?” Mafumafu glanced over at him, concerned and confused as the what the other was trying to say. Noticing Soraru’s look of dread and anguish, his worry only grew. “What’s wrong?”

“I think… I think that I-I have something… important to show all of you…” Soraru forcefully choked out his words in a muttered jumble as he paid more concern to actually getting the words out rather than how he got them out.

His finger hovered over one line of evidence: _Nqrse’s Final Message_. It glared back up at his as if daring Soraru to even try to attempt to press the button and send it out. Soraru didn’t know if he could.

“What is it?” Eve said cautiously, trying not to upset the obviously distressed older male.

“If it is important, why haven’t you brought it up sooner?” luz asked suspiciously.

“Can you tell us what it is?” Reol asked, a thinly veiled look of hope in her eyes.

“I think – I think that it’s best if… you see it for yourself,” Soraru took a deep breath and once again thought about what he was about to do. No matter what, it was too late now. He had no choice but to press the button to show everyone to truth.

And if not the truth, then some terribly cruel lie.

Unable to say a word, Soraru let his finger go numb as it finally fell onto the piece of evidence that had seemed to draw it in yet repel it away as if embodying both sides of magnet at the same time. Once his finger made contact with the bullet of evidence, it was sent out to the rest of them, shooting Soraru through the heart with grief and misery.

A horrid silence consumed everyone as the gun of misery turned its nuzzle to all of them and shot them as they all looked at the evidence that Soraru had given them.


	11. Arc 1 Trail Part 2

_Dear… well… whoever finds this,_

_I feel like I can already tell how you must feel. And I’m sorry. I know what I am doing is crazy, selfish, and horrible, but… I can’t help it. When you find this, obviously, I’ll be dead. Long gone. Passed on. I’m not making this any better, am I? Let’s start again. _

_First of all, I want to apologize. I want to apologize for leaving. I want to apologize for starting the killing game. I want to apologize for thrusting you all into this mess. Most of all, I want to apologize for hurting you. I don’t want to. You are all my closest friends. I don’t want to cause you pain. But I have to. Not just for me. But for your sake as well. _

_Looking at it now, I wish… I wish I had never been the traitor. I thought I could help. I thought I could do something to save everyone. I really wanted to believe that I could. I thought that it was a blessing, being the traitor, that it was a chance to do something important and become a hero. Now I know it was just a curse. The worst curse possible. _

_Over the course of my investigations, I found something. I found something so horrible. I didn’t want to believe it. But it was the truth. I couldn’t bear it. It drove me insane, filled me with nothing but despair. What could someone say in the face of such horrifying despair? It was just too awful and so I had to. I did the only thing I could. _

_I killed myself. _

_This truth is so horrible that I couldn’t stand it. So as the traitor, as the only one with this knowledge, I did what I had to to keep you all safe. I took all this knowledge, all this horrid truth with me to the grave so that none of you may have to learn it either. _

_I’m sorry for being selfish and dying. It must be too much to bear. But please, promise me that none of you will give into this awful game. I don’t want to see you suffer. That is why I had to go. For all you. _

_Once again, I’m sorry._

_With infinite love,  
nqrse _

* * *

An echoing silence like the silence after a thundering gunshot pierced through the air as everyone stared in horror at what Soraru had shown them. No one dared speak a word. No one could.

_What could someone say in the face of such horrifying despair?_

“No…” one shallow voice cut through the empty void of the room, “no… it’s… it’s not true… it can’t be…”

Soraru looked up from his own despair to see luz sobbing over his podium, eyes brinked with tears as he continued to whisper denial after denial.

“luz…” Araki looked over at his friend, his eyes clouded with tears that refused to fall, “please…”

“No!” luz shouted, his voice hoarse and hollow. He slammed his arms down on the podium beneath him, shaking out more tears from his eyes, “this isn’t real!”

“Please… don’t make this any harder…” Araki tried again, a few stray tears finally slipping from his eyes.

“nqrse would never do this! He just wouldn’t!” luz was going completely hysterical by this point, “he wouldn’t just kill himself! He’s not like that!”

“luz, please, it’s the truth,” Reol said, her own voice void of emotion as she looked down to keep the sight of her tears from everyone’s view.

“The evidence is right here. This note proves it,” Eve’s voice cracked as he moved to wipe away the tears pouring from his eyes.

“No! It can’t be! It’s a lie! One of you killed him!”

“Do you really believe one of us did this?” Soraru asked, shocking himself by how cold his tone seemed.

“I- no I- but-!” luz gripped his podium tightly, turning his fingers white with the strain.

“No one wants to believe it. But what other choice do we have? It’s either this or…” Urata couldn’t finish his thought, the tears spilling from his eyes preventing him from speaking further.

“What if it was Blanc?” Mafumafu spoke up, the tears filling his eyes almost completely masking the look of hope veiled behind them.

“Y-yeah! It’s all Blanc’s doing!” Amatsuki hastily agreed, looking for any option other than the horrid truth in front of him.

“Blanc could have just placed that note there, making it look like nqrse…” Sakata tried to speak before cutting himself off, hitching his breath at what he was about to say.

“What did Blanc do?” Shima asked, almost as if he had just started paying attention to the conversation after being spaced out for so long.

“Blanc killed nqrse and planted that note there!” Lon declared, forcing herself to look up despite the overflowing tears in her eyes.

“But,” un:c spoke up, dread already creeping into his voice, “that note was in nqrse’s handwriting.”

“Blanc could have just forged it to make it look like nqrse wrote it!” Sou protested the claim, trying desperately to latch on to any sort of more hopeful option regardless of the truth presented so clearly in his mind.

“That note was signed right?” Senra asked, his hollow voice cracking as he was forced to give in to despair.

“Face it. nqrse wrote that note. It’s the truth,” Kashitaro spoke as he looked down at his podium, eyes glazed over as he stared blankly at the note.

“Where is your proof?!” luz screamed again, nearly choking on his tears as he cried.

“nqrse did say that he wanted to help solve the mystery of this place,” Eve stated solemnly, his tears having finally been successfully wiped away.

“But how do you know he found anything! It was only one night! It’s not possible!” luz shouted through his sobs.

“But we have evidence that he was at least searching,” Soraru said as he hesitantly placed his finger over one of his evidence slots: _Used Chalk_, firing off the bullet of evidence to everyone’s podium.

“What did he find?” Senra asked, a mix of curious dread and hopeless despair filling his voice.

“We don’t know,” Mafumafu answered for Soraru

“So what happened to what he found?” Sou questioned, confused as to why it was being brought up.

“Easy, it was erased,” Soraru stated, choosing yet another piece of evidence to shot at his friends. This time tapping: _Messy Chalkboard_.

“What does that have to do with anything?!” luz spat out as his grip on his podium tightened.

“Look at the way the chalkboard was erased. It was completely covered and smeared with white chalk dust. But the chalk comes in multiple different colors, almost all of which have been used to at least some extent. They also have been smeared with other color fingerprints with very little care into keeping the colors orderly. But even with the array of colors, the erasings are in complete white,” Eve analyzed as he studied the pictures he was sent, the appropriate picture coming forward as to help prove Eve’s point as he spoke.

“Doesn’t that just prove that nqrse wasn’t the one who erased it?” Amatsuki looked at him with a desperately hopeful look.

“Sadly, it proved the opposite.” Eve tapped a few buttons on his podium’s screen, soon a picture of nqrse’s hands showed up on Soraru’s and everyone else’s screens. “You see the white chalk residue on nqrse’s hands? That means that white was the last color chalk nqrse held. And he must have held it to cover the board with it.”

“What if he was just using the chalk normally and white just so happened to be the last color he used!” Sou posed, a small frown creasing his lips.

Eve shook his head, “That wouldn’t have worked. Think about how you hold a pen, only a few of your fingers actually touch the stick of the pen, right? But if you look at nqrse’s fingers, you can see the faintest traces of other colors on his first few fingers, yes. But all of his fingers are smeared in white chalk. Going back to the image of the chalk, the white chalk was different from the others, namely in the fact that half of it had been flattened. This must have happened when he used it to completely cover the board in white. Using it like that would have definitely gotten white over all of his fingers.”

“What does this even have to do with anything?!” luz shook his head, still attempting to deny the facts placed in front of him.

“It also backs up the letter we found. When nqrse erased it because he didn’t want anyone to know what was behind it, so he completely covered the board in white as extra protection to make sure we couldn’t see what was behind it,” Eve concluded solemnly.

“Okay, okay, okay! This is getting boring! Who wants to sit around and hear you talk about chalk all day? Let’s get to the more exciting portion, shall we! How about we start voting time!” Blanc interrupted, breaking himself back into the conversation.

“What?! But we aren’t done yet!” luz shouted desperately.

“If you have time to go on and on about chalk, then I think you are as close to done as you need to be!” Blanc huffed in annoyance.

“Now then, it’s Voting Time!!!!! Using the screen in front of you, choose who you believe the blackened that killed nqrse is. Remember that refusing to vote will result in your death, so you better vote for someone.” Blanc cheered again.

Soraru’s podium screen changed to a panel with all the faces of Soraru’s friends on the list. Everyone’s face was displayed, showing off kind, optimistic smiles that seemed far too out of place compared to all of their current faces of dread. To add insult to injury, nqrse’s sweet face was slightly grayed out with the same curly x drawn over it.

It hurt. It hurt a lot. But in the end, Soraru forced his finger down onto his friend’s face and selected the “confirm” button. Once he did that, the screen shifted to only hold nqrse’s face on it, one final punch mocking him for failing to stop his friend.

Soraru looked around at the despair on everyone’s faces, some having quickly cast their vote, refusing to look at their screen any longer, while others took their time, still unable to fully take the truth of what was happening. But eventually, all votes had been cast and Soraru turned back up to Blanc as he spoke again.

“Upupupupu, it seems the voting has finished. Shall we see the result! At last, the heart racing excitement as the blackened and the spotless finally face off~!!!!! Who will be chosen as the blackened? Will you make the right choice or the dreadfully wrong one?!!!”

A large monitor extended out from behind Blanc’s throne, displaying a list of all of their names and faces along with small little bars next to it, sixteen next to each name to be exact. For some people, they had these little bars filled it, while others remained transparent.

In the end, twelve bars appeared next to nqrse’s name with two next to Reol and one next to Soraru.

A celebratory jingle was played as nqrse’s picture grew, covering the rest of the faces, names, and votes with only the image of their smiling friends face, blissfully optimistic, with an x over it.

“Congratulations! You got it correct the one who killed nqrse was indeed, well, nqrse himself!!!!!!” Blanc cackled as the final lights of hope vanished from their hearts.

“So… nqrse really…?” Araki swallowed, barely choking out his words in disbelief.

“I don’t believe… I can’t believe it… nqrse… why…?” luz sobbed forcing his head into his hands and his body was wracked with despair

“We should trust the nqrse we know,” Reol said firmly

“‘The nqrse we know’?” Mafumafu questioned, breathless and exhausted by the heavy despair pressing down on his body.

“He wanted to protect us. And I firmly believe that to be the truth,” Reol glanced down at her podium, looking over his note once again, before lifting her eyes to the rest of everyone in the room.

“If that was a lie too, I don’t know what I would do anymore,” Sou let a few more tears fall from his eyes.

“You guys are just so nice. Even though nqrse basically betrayed you,” Blanc whined as he watched everyone’s despairing faces with amusement.

“Oh, just shut up, you little–” Urata growled menacingly, his threatening glare only ruined by the tears streaking down his cheeks.

“Well, nevertheless, I have prepared a very special punishment!” Blanc interrupted, completely unphased by Urata’s glare.

“P-punishment? But for who? Nqrse is already…” Soraru forced out in confusion.

“Oh? Just because he’s dead doesn’t mean we still can’t have fun!” Balance cheered as he hopped up from his seat, his face suddenly turning menacing, “besides, I think I should make an example out of him, no?”

“You, sick little creature! Just cut it out already!” Senra shouted, misery and rage clouding his features.

“Now, it is time for the moment you have all been waiting for! I’ve prepared a very special punishment for our traitor, nqrse! So, let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s PUNISHMENT TIME!!!!!!!!!!!”

A button came up in front of Blanc who gleefully stepped on it, pressing it down with his paw. Once he did that, a segment of the wall crumbled away, revealing a portion fenced off by a tall chain-link fence. But it was still easy enough to see nqrse’s slumped over body on a center platform with bright lights shining down on him.

Suddenly, to everyone’s surprise, nqrse’s body started to rise up from the ground, though his head remained slumped over, leaving his face out of everyone’s sight. His body slowly lifted itself from the ground, rising until nqrse stood at a standing position, but his head still looked down at the floor. Then, his body began to move, acting as if he was a concert, performing dance moves, keeping one hand by his head as if holding a nonexistent microphone. Distorted music played in the background as nqrse danced and danced. However, throughout the entire performance, his head stayed slumped over.

Once the performance finished, nqrse’s body went limp and he started rising again, his body moving off of the floor. Even as his feet lifted off from their placement on the ground, his body remained limp. He made no move to struggle or resist his body being risen higher and higher until it was proudly displayed up in the air in the middle of the room.

The bright lights adjusted, revealing coils of thorn-covered vines wrapping around nqrse’s body, particularly at his joints which led up into the catwalk above the stage where Blanc sat, controlling nqrse like a marionette doll.

But the most striking vine was the one tightly clinging to his neck that was now starting to drip little droplets of crimson red, letting them fall onto the stage floor below him. That one vine was now supporting all of nqrse’s weight since the other vines went slack, uncoiling themselves and retracting to return to Blanc. Nqrse’s body slightly swayed from the invisible breeze as his body hanged.

Now that nqrse was so high in the air, they could finally see his face, still slumped over. The same line of crimson still trailed from his lips down his face. His eyes were open, unblinking, empty, and lifeless. He was dead. He had been for a while. Nothing could change that fact. 


	12. Arc 1 Bonus

_ **Floor 1 Map:** _

* * *

_**Arc 1 Bonus Scene**_ _\- Mournings and Sweetness_

Nqrse let out a soft groan when he felt movement next to him in the bed. His eyelids threatened to close again as the shuffling came to an end. But the coldness beside him managed to convince him to force open his eyes if only for a moment. The sight he saw did not disappoint him.

Peeking out from under his messy pink bangs, nqrse managed to catch a glimpse of his boyfriend as he watched the older stretch, back muscles flexing as he lifted his arms over his head, a small yawn falling from his lips, keeping his arms resting on his shoulders as he looked around the room. When he took a glance back to the bed, nqrse quickly shut his eyes to pretend as if he was asleep.

“Good morning,” nqrse heard him call with a slight chuckle in his voice. Thinking that the other must have seen him and knew he was awake, nqrse was about to reply when a humming response resounded behind him.

“Morning, darling,” a sleepy hum was accompanied by a light squeeze around nqrse’s waist. There was a light shuffle behind nqrse as the youngest felt a flush of warmth draw near his front. When nqrse peeked his eyes open, he managed to catch a glimpse of his two companions in a calm lip lock. Nqrse closed his eyes before they moved away and the one behind him settled back into his previous place.

“Should we wake him up?” nqrse heard muttered far away from him from across the room, most likely near the drawers to get a change in clothes.

“Nah, he’s so cute when he sleeps. Let him rest a bit longer,” nqrse felt the response mumbled into his ear, the breath tickling his skin. “You should join us.”

A soft chuckle was resounded through the room, “But who else is going to make you two sleepyheads’ breakfast?”

“Breakfast can wait. Cuddling is eternal.”

“We actually have to get ready today.”

“Just a few more minutes?”

“You and nqrse can rest for a bit longer.”

“But it’s not the same without you.”

“You’ll just have to wait until breakfast is done.”

“Why can’t we get convince store breakfast?”

“You need to eat better.”

“It’s either eat better or cuddle.”

Hearing this conversation going nowhere, nqrse finally decided to make his consciousness known two his two partners. With a soft and sleepy groan, nqrse lightly turned in his bed to face the chest of the person behind him.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” nqrse felt luz purr into his ear as the older drew the younger in with his hands around his waist.

“G’morning,” nqrse muttered with a soft yawn, mewling past his throat. Once the yawn had passed, he felt a chapped, yet demanding pair of lips connect with his own in a small effort to help wake him up better.

Nqrse nearly melted into luz’s kiss. He normally would, but it seemed that the older was holding back. Whether that was for nqrse’s sake since he just woke up or if it was because luz himself was still sleepy and tired, nqrse wasn’t quite sure.

Just as they disconnected, nqrse felt another warmth approach him from behind. As he turned his head, he felt another pair of soft and calm lips connect with his.

Araki’s kisses were quite different from luz’s. Unlike the latter, Araki was always gentle and sweet with nqrse, gently caressing his lips with a calm compassion, always leaving nqrse feeling soothed and contented with just a simple kiss.

When they parted, Araki whispered a caring “good morning” into his ear.

“Won’t you stay with us this morning, darling?” nqrse gave Araki his best shyly pleading look in an attempt to convince the older to stay with him. Despite nqrse’s best attempt to appeal to his sense of cute, Araki still seemed apprehensive.

“Ne, darling,” luz lightly moved up and way form nqrse’s body to nuzzled into Araki’s neck, leaving a small kiss right afterward, “let’s sleep in a little later, okay? I don’t wanna get up yet.”

“We have to get up today, luv,” Araki replied sorrowfully with a little peck on luz’s nose and a gentle smile. But, as he tried to lift his body from the bed, nqrse felt luz’s arms loosen their grip on his waist, only to move up to catch Araki’s, preventing him from moving any further. “Luv…”

“Just a minute more. Please?” luz looked up at Araki with a pleading puppy look in his eyes that instantly melted nqrse’s heart. Catching the idea nqrse also made sure to give his best puppy look as well. With both of his partners looking at him so adorably and expectantly, how could he refuse?

Nqrse watched with a pout as the other moved away from the bed, letting his eyes trail the other until he finally got to the door. However, when he reached the door, he simply closed and moved back over towards the bed.

“Just a minute. Then we’ll get up,” Araki conceded as he slipped back into the bed, snuggling back into the same position as before with his chest facing nqrse’s front, wrapping his arms through luz’s and around nqrse’s waist. Nqrse, thoroughly wedged between the two, hummed contently and he nuzzled into their bodies for warmth.

“Alright,” luz mumbled happily, his chest rumbling slightly as he spoke.

Luz kissed the back of nqrse’s neck and Araki kissed the top of nqrse’s head as nqrse let the calm ease wash over him. The peaceful morning that had greeted nqrse with his two favorite people was nothing short of dream-like. Feeling contented and comfortable, nqrse felt his mind slip as he folded to the gentle atmosphere. If he spent every morning like this, nqrse knew his life would be perfect.

Surrendering to the comfortable and peaceful atmosphere, nqrse felt himself drift off to sleep once again.

Before he knew it, nqrse heard the horrible chimings of a scarily familiar voice.

“Hello~ This is an announcement~ A body has been discovered~! Please head over to nqrse-chan’s room immediately~~ Once you all arrive…”


	13. After the Storm, Before the Hurricane

Soraru let a sleepy groan move past his lips, his body ready to wake up but his mind not ready to commit. So instead, Soraru let himself linger in that wonderful place somewhere between consciousness and sleep. The place where he was aware that he was alive and awake, but his mind was blank, and he couldn’t think about anything. Soraru’s mind wasn’t sure why he wanted to be there; it wasn’t even conscious that he needed to be wondering why, but nevertheless, he desperately attempted to remain in that calmingly empty state, letting his mind linger in that blissful ignorance.

But no matter how hard he tried, eventually, he had to wake up to the morning and face whatever facts that he had been trying to avoid.

The rude awakening came in the form of a horribly sickening voice that the mere thought of made Soraru want to hurl.

“Hello~ This is an announcement~ It is now 8 am! Daytime has now begun! Please have another wonderful day of the killing game~”

All at once, the memories of everything came back to him, who he was, where he was, why he was here, what happened yesterday, nqrse.

Soraru felt even more nauseous as he thought about his close friend. No matter what, he would never be able to get that image out of his head, nqrse’s lifeless body being hung from the ceiling as some sort of cruel joke, laughing at his own worthlessness and inability to save or help his friend.

The truth of what had happened only hit him after everything was said and done. When he returned to his room after the trial, he just sat on the edge of his bed and sobbed, the shock having finally worn off.

_Nqrse was dead. _

_Dead. _

_Never coming back. _

Soraru would never be able to speak to him again. He would never call the younger on skype to talk or to get the younger’s advice again. He would never be able to tease the younger on his complicated love life or have the younger tease him about his own incompetence with love again. He would never hear the younger boldly declare that Soraru was his big brother again. He would never again hear the younger laugh as he told anther story of luz’s idiotic tendencies. He would never again hear the younger fawn over whatever sweet gesture that Araki provided for him. He would never again talk to the younger about what song they should collaborate with next, leaving dozens of songs listed for the future, but neither having the proper time to fully commit to working on them, reasoning that they could always do them later. He would never again play video games with the younger, getting irritated as he heard the younger loudly cheering whenever he managed to kill him.

_I will never see nqrse again. _

The thought made his heart burn and his lungs feel like they were going to collapse.

He ended up crying himself to sleep before dinnertime even came around, completely and utterly void of any strength or will to do anything else except let the release of unconsciousness take him over.

Soraru didn’t want to remember. He didn’t want to think about it. But every time he closed his eyes, the sight of nqrse’s corpse invaded his mind and took over his thoughts.

Soraru didn’t want to remember how he had failed his friend. He should have done something. He should have let nqrse know that he didn’t have to push himself so hard. He should have told nqrse that he didn’t have to search. He should have offered nqrse some help. He should have been there with nqrse. He should have let nqrse know that no matter what, it would all be okay. He should have been there to stop nqrse from killing himself.

Soraru tried to turn over in his bed and let sleep once reclaim his mind, reasoning that if he slept, maybe he would wake up and find out that all of was a dream and he didn’t fail and they weren’t trapped here and nqrse was still alive and he and nqrse could collab again and play video games again and continue being friends again.

But, just as sleep took over his mind again, a sharp knock resounded on his door, the noise pounding through his room.

Soraru groaned but made no move to get up to check his door.

There was another knock on his door, this time accompanied by muffled words, “Soraru, I know it’s hard, but you need to come to the morning meeting. Please.”

It was Reol’s voice, void of all emotion making it sound oddly composed. Yet, Soraru could still hear the pain behind it.

_Morning meeting? _

Oh yeah, that was a thing that they had to do.

Soraru didn’t know how he would handle the day, facing all of his friends, minus one. Soraru didn’t know if he could. He knew all of them were most likely in the same state of mind as him. They all had worked with him, gotten to know him, bonded with him.

They had all cared about nqrse so deeply.

But nevertheless, Reol was right.

Without putting in any more effort or thought than absolutely necessary, Soraru forced his body out of bed and towards the door, not even bothering to go to the restroom to attempt to make himself look presentable.

Just as he heard the starting of another knock at his door, Soraru sluggishly opened the door.

In front of him was Reol, looking pristine and perfect, like nothing had ever happened. Her hair was neatly done, her clothes were cleanly placed on her body, and her makeup was nicely applied. The only sign that something was off was the dark bags under her eyes, poorly covered up with a heavy layer of concealer.

They both looked at each other for a moment before Reol wordlessly moved out of the way and let Soraru go to the dining hall.

Just as Soraru was leaving the dining hall, he heard Reol knock on the door next to his, trying to convince it’s resident to join the meeting as well. A bit down the hall, Soraru saw Eve doing the same to other people’s doors. Soraru caught a glimpse of a tired Mafumafu with obvious tear stains lining his face open his door at Eve’s request before Soraru rounded the corner and left for the dining hall.

When Soraru entered the dining hall, he saw that Eve and Reol must have already convinced half of their friends to leave their rooms. Sitting at the dining table already were Senra, un:c, Amastuki, Lon, Urata, Sou, Sakata, and Kashitaro. Soraru observed the silence that pervaded the room with the suffocating air of sorrow, misery, remorse, and regret. No one looked up as Soraru entered. No one even tried to say, “Good morning.” They all just carried in their own silent misery.

Araki was lying down at the table, head nestled face down into his arms, but whether he was asleep or not, Soraru couldn’t tell. Luz was staring blankly at his food, his face giving off no expression of emotion whatsoever as if he had lost the ability to feel emotion altogether.

Soraru couldn’t help feeling awful for the two. Even immersed in his own pity party, he could recognize that they had it millions of times worse.

Everyone else around the room was also in some stage of grief. Some like Urata, Senra, Kashitaro, and un:c seemed to still be in shock, eyes glazed and stare blank as they acted out the motions of life without feeling anything in particular. Soraru found himself in the same boat as them, not knowing how to properly express his heartache, so in lack of any other emotion besides pain, he expressed nothing at all.

While others like Sakata, Lon, Amastuki, and Sou openly sobbed. Sou and Amastuki just sat there and cried, not bothering to even try to function properly while Lon and Sakata at least made efforts to do things that resembled normal human routine, like drinking eating their breakfast.

Soraru could barely register his own movements, his body on autopilot, as he moved into the kitchen and grabbed himself something random from the tray and sat down to eat it, his eyes never leaving the dull sight of just under his normal line of vision, just the right place to be unable to see anything meaningful like the looks to his friends faces or the food on his plat, but able to see enough to move without knocking into anything. He ate like that as well, not even bothering to look at his food as he attempted to blindly put it on his utensil (which Soraru was starting to believe was actually a knife, but he hadn’t been paying attention, so he didn’t know) and into his mouth.

Soraru didn’t know when everyone had arrived or when the meeting had started or what had been discussed or when Blanc had entered or what Blanc had said or what they had talked about afterward.

He just sat there, unfeeling in his own sorrow.


	14. Irreparable Time

It had been a month.

Soraru didn’t want to think about it. But it had been a month.

A month since nqrse was revealed to be the traitor. A month since they asked nqrse to search for the truth. A month since nqrse promised to do his best. A month since they found nqrse’s dead body. A month since they learned that nqrse had killed himself. A month since they witnessed nqrse’s execution. A month since they saw nqrse’s dead body hanging from the ceiling by a thorned rope strangling his neck.

A month since this place revealed itself as the hell it was.

No matter how much they wished that it wouldn’t, time moved forward. No matter how much Soraru had desperately wished to be able to go back in time, time moved forward.

Time moved forward until Soraru found himself in the dining hall for the breakfast meeting one day, going about his normal lifeless routine, noting how everyone, although still deeply and irreparably scarred, had finally started to move to live out their normal lives with however “normal” it could be while trapped in this place when a sudden jolting sound from a familiar voice made Soraru quickly whip his head behind him to see a white cat come out of a small space in the floorboards his tail joyfully wagging in a mocking fashion behind him as he sauntered over to the table they all sat at, leaping up onto it without effort.

Blanc purred as he glanced around the table, his eyes glinting with gleeful madness as he studied them, “Upupupupupu~ You all seem to be doing fine~ Especially since you are no closer to getting out of here than when you first got here and all that you have accomplished in this month was kill one of your friends.”

What was once a calm and neutral atmosphere was instantly shattered and broken into despair. The room went silent as everyone’s eyes trained onto Blanc’s small form as he moved across the breakfast table, earning more glares and disgusted responses than normal. It didn’t seem to phase Blanc though as he casually moved around the table, trying to coax attention out of anyone who was near him.

“But~ This is getting a little dull,” Blanc purred, sounding only falsely upset at the lack of excitement.

_At the lack of us killing each other,_ Soraru noted.

“So~ as a little extra push~ I have decided to be the most generous of caregivers by giving you all a little present~” Blanc stopped in front of Mafumafu and Soraru as he attempted to nuzzle Soraru’s hand, which was resting on the table, only to have him quickly withdraw his hand in complete revulsion.

“A… present?” Eve asked with a horrified curiosity.

“Why yes!” Blanc instantly skipped over to Eve who seemed to release his mistake in taking Blanc’s bait a little too late. “For finishing your very first trial, I have gathered some fun items that I think could be useful to you in your Killing Game Quest~!”

“K-Killing Game… Quest?” Kashitaro sputtered out in a mix of horror and disbelief.

Blanc ignored him and continues with his description of what he had for everyone. With no explanation as to how or where he had managed to pull the items out of, Soraru blinked and suddenly there were three items in front of Blanc.

They looked slightly odd, especially all pile next to each other.

The first looked like a pearl of some type. It was an odd deep forest green color with a lighter, paler green swirled in with it. The pearl had a glossy finish that seemed to be able to reflect the overhead lights of the dining hall and amplify them so that the glare coming off from it was so blinding that Soraru could barely stand to look at it.

So, Soraru instead looked at the second object. This one was definitely stranger than the last. It looked to be a watering can, but the nozzle where to the water normally comes out of was turned back so that it was placed over top of the area that the water was put into. The design made no sense to Soraru and after a while of looking at the vibrant red, yellow, and blue floral pattern on top of the dull purple background, Soraru’s head began to hurt.

Finally looking at the final object, the first thing he noticed was just how small it was. It seemed like it was supposed to be a ruler, judging by the numbered dash markings; however, those markings only went up to one cm. In fact, the rounded edge that held a ring hole and told the unit of measurement was actually longer than the actual centimeter of the ruler.

“I hope that these objects will help enrich your experience here and help you on your Killing Game Quest Adventures~!” Blanc cheered at his own words as everyone else in the room remain silent before he leaped off the table and took one last look at everyone, still frozen in place at their seats. “But~ I do so hope that you get to action soon~ It is rather boring when you all do nothing but mope all day~ Make sure to act soon~ Or I might just have to force it out of you with a motive~”

With that, Blanc disappeared again beneath the floorboards of the dining hall, leaving behind nothing but silence and dread as no one wished to think about what they were all just asked to do. 

After a while, a cracked hoarse voice spoke up. Soraru barely recognized it as Senra’s, “So, what are we going to do? With the objects, I mean?” Senra looked between everyone nervously as if worried that he might have said something bad. He had been acting a lot more anxious since everything happened last month.

Silence pervaded them once again, though this one was quickly broken by Sou speaking up timidly, “Shouldn’t one of us hold onto them? For safekeeping and such?” Sou hadn’t faired much better, constantly seeming to doubt himself. But, he also seemed to have a much stronger resolve to act than most anyone else there.

“Why does it matter? It just looks like junk,” Urata glared at the objects as of they had caused the most offensive atrocity on him just by sitting there. For all intents and purposes, Urata seemed to be back to normal. Had Soraru not known him better, he could have almost been fooled. Almost. It was still quite obvious that no matter how hard he tried to hide it, he was just as hurt as the rest of them.

“Even so, I don’t trust them,” Amatsuki said with an uneasy pout staining his lips. Amatsuki was possibly the most open about his feeling. Unlike nearly everyone else, he still managed to retain some semblance of optimism within the hope that they could all still leave this place together.

“I don’t think we should trust anything that has to with Blanc,” Kashitaro determined with a serious look on his face. He seemed to be a lot more serious since everything that has happened. The incident seeming to have mellowed out his normally cheerful persona.

“Nothing that has to do with Blanc is ever good news,” luz’s voice rasped with misuse. Now that Soraru thought about it, he wasn’t sure he had even heard the younger talk ever since the incident a month ago. The other had just sat in the corner, silently watching, far off in his own world.

“I agree. If Blanc went out of his way to give us these items, that must mean that he’s up to something,” un:c thought out loud, his eyebrows creasing with the concentration on his thoughts as if he was trying to decipher the entire world’s workings on his own right there and then.

“Then what should we do with them?” Lon asked, looking apprehensibly around at the others at the table. Lon hadn’t known nqrse too well, unlike the rest of them, so she was less affected by his death and more affected by everyone else’s drastic deterioration in mood.

“I think we should find one person that we all trust and let them keep the items,” Sakata suggested, trying to find a way to be useful and carry the conversation along despite the generally sour mood surrounding everyone due to the situation.

“Why does it matter? It’s just junk anyways,” Araki said dully, any spark of life or energy having long since been removed from him. He looked more tired than anything like he wanted to get everything over with as quickly as possible.

“I still think we should try to leave the items with someone. That way, it’s only one person’s problem,” In all honesty, Soraru had no idea what was happening with Shima. They had barely even seen each other in the past month and the only time they were in the same room was during breakfast in the dining hall in which they sat on opposite ends of the room. They didn’t speak out of dislike or anything. Their paths simply did not cross.

Actually, Soraru felt that way about a lot of his friends. It was partially his fault, he knew. Soraru had spent so much time asleep in his room or by himself. The very few times he did leave were for meals and if Mafumafu or Lon had managed to drag him out for a bit.

“I vote that we give the items to Eve-kun,” Mafumafu added, “He seemed the most capable, especially considering how he acted during the last month.”

“I agree. Eve is probably the most trusted out of us, so I think it would be best to leave the items with him. Even if it is just junk, we can be sure that they are with a trusted person,” Reol spoke with finality and conviction, almost as if trying to speak as a leader of the group. She had been acting like a leader more and more since what happened. Soraru assumed it was her way of making up for what happened last time by trying to take charge to prevent something like that from happening again.

“Are you all sure about that? I don’t know why you all trust me so much,” Eve glanced around at all of them, worry and doubt taking over his facial expression as if he didn’t notice how after that trial a month ago, everyone had started looking to his as a pillar of strength due solely to how confident and composed he had acted in the face of such terrible despair.

“I think it’s a good idea to trust Eve with these items. I feel that out of everyone, he is the most reasonable choice,” Soraru decided to finally add his opinion into the mix of the debate.

He felt so tired. But he still had to move forward.

Life kept going and all of that.

Even if it was hard, Soraru had to continue on.

Not just for everyone there.

But for nqrse as well.


	15. Probably Without Reason

“Hello~ This is an announcement~” the screen in the corner of the room screeched to life accompanied by a sickeningly familiar voice, “It is now 8 am! Daytime has now begun! Please have another wonderful day of the killing game~” With one final laugh, the screen flickered off.

Soraru groaned as he resisted the urge to hit his hand against his nightstand in an attempt to try to stop his alarm from ringing. Dully in the back of his mind he registered that he was getting far too familiar with this place, but that thought was quickly swept away and forgotten by morning haze and the warmth surrounding him.

Barely being able to open his eyes, Soraru’s sight was only greeted with white. It was a soft, fluffy white that reminded Soraru of clouds with their silky texture that made Soraru always want to reach out and rake his hand through the sweet white.

Without realizing it, Soraru had begun to pet the white which responded under his grasp with a small sleepy sound and a nuzzle into his palm.

“Soraru-san~” the tired voice of his lover brought Soraru’s mind back to reality as he looked down at the younger’s sleepy face as the other brought his hands up in little kitten paw fists to try and rub the sleep out of his eyes. Soraru pretended not to note how cute the other looked, especially with the little line of drool slipping out of his mouth.

“What is it, Mafu?” Soraru whispered gently as if anything louder or harsher would shatter the soft and gentle atmosphere that had been created this morning.

_It almost feels odd to be at peace after all that has happened. _

But Soraru decided to push that thought away from his mind before it could interrupt the nice moment that he had been having.

_Especially since such nice moments are so rare now. _

But Soraru ignored that thought too. Instead, he focused on how adorable his little lover was with his still sleepy complexion. Soraru couldn’t help the soft smile that graced his lips, nor could he help the overwhelming urge to kiss the younger under him.

Swooping down for a small, good morning kiss, Soraru felt a comforting ease take over him at the familiar feeling of his lovers lips on his own. It was also cute watching Mafumafu’s reactions as he first pretended like he didn’t want to be kissed and attempted to move away only for when Soraru did actually start to move way for him to come rushing back to Soraru’s lips, desperately wanting to be kissed.

Soraru chuckles softly as he finally parted from Mafumafu, a soft coating of light pink flushing his cheeks.

“Good morning, Soraru-san~” Mafumafu gave a cute kitten-like yawn as his face spread into a sleepy, yet blissful smile. The two gave each other another quick peck of the lips before finally deciding to move away and get ready for the morning that awaited them.

They worked with each other in a practiced motion as they moved around each other in the dance of their morning routine, completely in sync as they moved around the small, yet familiar dorm room. They joined their calm morning with peaceful hummings, their voices blending together in perfect harmony.

When they had finally completed getting ready for the morning, they left their room, not forgetting to give each other a few more kisses as they finished with the last steps of their morning routine.

When they arrived at breakfast, they were greeted by the familiar faces and welcomes of their friends. Grabbing their food and sitting down with the rest of their friends at the same spot of the table that they normally sit themselves at, Soraru and Mafumafu fell into the familiar lull of the conversation with their friends.

Just like clockwork by this point, the moment that everyone arrived and sat down for breakfast, another meeting started. This one same as all the others began with a few solemn words, followed by hopeful words, then a time for idea spit-balling ideas, then a strategy for today which basically consisted of “go do what you want, but keep you eye out for something important”, then lastly, a few more hopeful words, then they all left.

When they all split up, Urata and Sakata pulled Soraru and Mafumafu aside, asking if they wanted to hang out in the common room.

“Sure, I don’t see why not,” Soraru had responded while Mafumafu had cheered, “Yeah! Sounds like fun!”

“Hurray!” Sakata pumped his fist in the air in excitement, “SoraMafuUraSaka unite!”

Urata just rolled his eyes, but when Sakata looked back at his expectantly, he looked away as softly put his fist in the air as well.

“Let’s go~! Fuuuu~!” Sakata grabbed Urata’s hand, who tried fruitlessly to sputter excuses as the younger dragged him away. 

Mafumafu giggled cutely as he looked back at Soraru, hand outstretched expectantly. With no choice but to comply with his lover’s cute look, Soraru took the younger’s hand. Mafumafu’s bright smile more than made up for his dislodged shoulder as he was dragged along towards the common.

When they arrived, Sakata was cheering something along the lines of “We won! We got here first!”

“I didn’t know we were racing,” Soraru sighed, exasperated as he saw Mafumafu pout about how they “lost” and how it was “all Soraru-san’s fault for being so slow.” 

Soraru didn’t know how to respond, so he just sighed again and patted Mafumafu’s hair to make him feel better about losing in a race that wasn’t even a race since UraSaka left far before they did.

“Anyway, what did you even want to play?” Soraru tried to change the topic from their non-race.

“Hmmm…” Sakata hummed as he looked around the room with analytical eyes, trying to determine which among the many games in the room they should play.

“Why don’t we just play a game of billards?” Urata sighed as he already started making his way towards the table before Sakata could shout in agreement.

The four of them played a few rounds together with Sakata being surprisingly good at the game, nearly always dominating the game each round they played. Urata seemed to struggle significantly with game, constantly hitting his cue (white) ball into the hole. Mafumafu seemed to do alright with the game, being neither here nor there in terms in skill. Soraru himself was at least somewhat half-way decent with the game, even if he had next to no hope of defeating Sakata.

The games preceded as normal with Sakata almost always coming in first, followed by Soraru, then Mafumafu, with Urata sadly always coming in dead last. Even though the game’s outcome was almost the same, the four still found fun in playing with each other and having fun conversation while they played.

It wasn’t until Mafumafu suggested new rules that things changed.

“Oh! Here’s a cool idea,” the albino had brought up in between rounds, just as the others were resetting back up the table, “we should play against each other!”

“Uh… Mafu-kun? We are playing against each other? This is a competition,” Urata said slowly and carefully, almost as if afraid Mafumafu had hit his head.

“That’s not how I meant it! What I meant was that we should each chose a ball to call our own and that we hit other than the white one. The objective is to hit the others’ balls into the hole while protecting our own ball. We can keep the other balls up on the table, but they are worth less points than the other players’ balls. When your ball gets knocked out, you get knocked out of the game.” Mafumafu explained the rules of his game.

Soraru thought these new rules over. They sounded interesting. “Alright, I’m fine with it.”

“Sure, sounds fun!” Sakata cheered in excitement as he started to change the game set up to fit the new rules.

“I’ll be beat you this time,” Urata threatened with a strict, determined look on his face.

They set up the game with each of them picking a ball corresponding to their own color and Mafumafu keeping the white cue ball as his own. Once the game started, it moved quite similar to a lot of their previous games with Sakata easily dominating the table, though he wasn’t going for one of their balls. Urata seemed like he was trying to go towards Sakata’s ball, but it was hard to tell because he just wasn’t very good at the game. Soraru decided to just play the game normally and if he managed to get one of the others’ balls, then good for him. Mafumafu, on the other hand, was trying desperately to get out the other players and eventually managed to take out Soraru’s ball.

“Hurray! I took down Soraru-san!” Mafumafu cheered excitedly as he jumped around in victory. With Mafumafu acting so cute over something so simple, Soraru couldn’t bring himself to be annoyed.

With Soraru out of the game, it was Urata’s turn who huffed but set up a fake smug smile upon his lips as he spoke in a low, cocky voice, “Huh, if even someone like Mafumafu can take out his opponent, then surely, _I_ should have no struggle taking you down. You may not have noticed, but you fell right into my trap, the perfect position for me to end this once and for all. So now, with this final strike, I shall destroy you!”

Urata hit his green ball towards Sakata.

And missed. Completely.

However, he struck his ball so that it was perfectly aligned with Sakata’s ball and the hole. In other words, Urata’s ball was in the perfect position for Sakata to take him down.

It was Sakata’s turn next.

“I’m sorry, Ura-san,” Sakata gave the other a solemn smile as he moved his stick into position.

This was it. This was the end.

_Well, not really because even after Sakata took down Urata, he would still have to take down Mafumafu, but that isn’t what’s important._

What’s important was that it was over for Urata.

Sakata moved back his stick, preparing to strike with all of his might at the other. The pressure in the air was oddly tense for a simple pool game.

However, at just the moment that Sakata let his stick fly, it seemed to slip, though whether on purpose or not, Soraru couldn’t tell due to the speed of the strike.

But what he did know was that the strike went badly. Instead of hitting the ball dead on, Sakata hit the side, launching the ball into the side of the wall and causing it to ricochet.

Into the hole.

Sakata got himself out.

Without even touching Urata’s ball which stood calmly in its place, undisturbed by the events that just transpired around it.

Everyone just stood around dumbfounded by the events that just happened.

Urata and Sakata just stared at each other, quietly trying to come to an agreement about what just happened as Mafumafu soundlessly moved into place.

In the silence, the clanging of the balls sounded like a gunshot as Mafumafu’s ball clanged against Urata’s sending it down into the hole chasing after Sakata’s.

That seemed to wake everyone up as they all moved over to congratulated Mafumafu on his win, patting him on the back and laughing as they all recounted how crazy that game was.

When they all moved out of the common after a few more rounds, it was already time for lunch. Urata and Sakata decided to grab their lunch to eat it elsewhere and Mafumafu was exhausted, so he ate quickly to leave early which left Soraru all alone.

As Soraru ate in silence, his thoughts strayed. Soon, he found himself thinking about a month ago. He found himself thinking about it a lot. He just wished he had done something, _anything_ to help his friend. He should have been there for him. Maybe had he done something…

Soraru tried to shake the thoughts out of his mind. That was the past. There is nothing he can do about it now. No matter how much it hurt, nqrse was gone and nothing was going to bring him back.

Soraru was shook out of his thoughts by the dining room door opening. Soraru was surprised by who came through.

The door slowly creaked open, revealing a tired and sullen luz trudging through the crack.

Unlike nearly everyone else trapped there, luz hasn’t gotten over nqrse’s death yet. Or at least, hasn’t outwardly gotten over it because how could anyone get over something like that.

The younger didn’t even bother with a greeting as he quietly shuffled over to kitchen to grab his lunch. When he reemerged, he just sat down at the other end of the table and ate silently. Soraru as well continued to eat his own food in an awkward silence.

The silence dragged on until a quiet hushed noise came from the direction of the other.

Looking over, Soraru was shocked, but not surprised, to see luz crying over his food. Unable to just leave his friend alone like that, Soraru left his half-eaten food to go comfort the other.

With a lack of anything else to do, Soraru embraced the younger in an awkward hug, but it still got his message across.

Soraru didn’t remember when it happened but soon the two were talking, sharing fun stories of their times with nqrse. They shared when they first met nqrse and how Soraru was surprised to see that he looked just like his profile picture with the same curly pink hair and cute dress despite being a boy. Luz also shared when he first met nqrse and how he fell in love nearly instantly and how over the years, he’s only found more and more reasons to love the cute boy.

They talked about their favorite memories with nqrse.

Soraru shared how at one point, when he and Mafumafu were still pinning after each other, nqrse dragged him to the amusement park and forced him to go on the Ferris Wheel. _When nqrse wanted you to do something, you were not allowed to say no to him. _But once they had gotten to the very top of the rotation, nqrse started to shake their cart, telling Soraru that he would only stop if he confessed to Mafumafu. But he felt bad about it right afterward, so nqrse treated him to dinner where he threatened to do it again.

Luz shared how once, he took nqrse to the movie theatre because there was this one movie that he had been waiting to see ever since he first saw the trailer for, only to realize that it had been out of theatres for nearly a month at that point. Thankfully, nqrse hadn’t gotten mad and instead, suggested that they see another movie while there, but since neither of them knew the movie selection, they ended choosing a really terrible slasher movie. Even though the was horrible, the effects were cheap, and the acting was lackluster, nqrse seemed really scared and clung to luz the entire movie. When it ended, nqrse vowed never to go into a movie without knowing the genre again… only to do it the next time he went to the movies anyways.

As they continued to share stories about their friend, Soraru felt the pain in his heart lighten as the bad memories of his death were washed away and replaced with sweeter memories of their times together. Even luz seemed to be doing better. Even if it was just a small smile, it warmed Soraru’s heart to see him smiling at all.

Of course, soon the two of them had finished their food and had to split up for the day to go about their own business. Soraru was going to go check up on Mafumafu and luz was going to go back to his room and then later to meet up with Araki.

As Soraru left the dining hall, he was surprised to see as figure standing by the stairs. Coming closer, Soraru instantly recognized who it was.

“Oh, hey Eve,” Soraru called out to the younger as he approached. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, hello Soraru,” Eve greeted with a small wave and a smile which quickly turned awkward, “Ah, well, I actually found an entire new floor just above our own.”

“Really?” Soraru asked astonished. “How?”

“It actually happened when I used those items, you know, the ones Blanc gave us, on the thing up there,” Eve recalled sheepishly.

“Wow, you truly are amazing,” Soraru praised with a complementing smile on his lips as he lightly patted Eve on the shoulder in congratulations.

“I-I wouldn’t really say that. B-but thank you nonetheless,” Eve looked down with a light flush, a finger raising up to scratch at his cheek in embarrassment.

“Why do you say that? You were amazing in being able to use all of that junk Blanc gave us,” Soraru attempted to comfort his younger friend.

“Do you really think so? I wonder if– No, that’s ridiculous, I didn’t do too much. It was easy,” a sudden pensive look crossed his face as Eve looked away from Soraru entirely, but before he could completely turn his head, Soraru caught a familiar sight and Soraru should know. After all, he’s had the same look on his own face countless times before.

_Love sickness. _

“So, this is about Sou, huh?” Soraru decided to cut to the chase of the matter.

“E-eh? W-what do you m-mean?” Eve instantly sputtered out in embarrassment, his face flushing a bright red.

“I’m sure Sou would be incredibly impressed with what you did. He really adores you,” Soraru smiled as he tried to hint to the younger’s feelings.

“You think so? Well, he only sees me as a friend anyway,” Eve sighed sorrowfully.

“Are you sure about that? It seems to me that he looks at you in a different sort of light,” Soraru smiled at his friend comfortingly.

“How can you be sure?” Eve looked up at the older nervously, wishing for his senior’s guidance.

Soraru tried to recall if he ever promised to not tell Eve about Sou’s feelings. The younger would definitely be upset is Soraru had promised but had gone back on his word, not to mention making Soraru promise is definitely a Sou thing to do. Deciding not to take the risk and figuring that it would be better if they found out on their own, Soraru decided to hold his tongue on that particular detail.

“Because what the two of you are going through reminds me of something similar that happened between me and Mafumafu. You are both blind to each other’s feelings is all,” Soraru opted to go with that explanation in the end.

“You think so?” Eve looked up at the older hopefully.

“I know so,” Soraru nodded confidently.

“Maybe I should confess to Sou,” Eve thought aloud to himself.

“I think that would be absolutely perfect,” Soraru internally cheered at his success in playing matchmaker.

_Now I know what Lon must have felt like with me and Mafumafu. _

“Alright then!” Eve cheered to himself as a sharp, determined look crosses his face, “when we get out of here, I’ll confess my feelings to Sou!”

Soraru felt himself smile at the younger’s antics, remembering the time he himself had just been a lowly piner, hoping for his own lover to notice him.

Soraru felt his resolve strengthen as he remembered the reason why he needed to get out of there, the reason why he couldn’t just sit back and do nothing, the reason why he had to keep fighting alongside everyone else. For his and all of his friends’ sake, he had to do his best to get out of there.

Hopefully, before anyone else had to suffer.


	16. Echoes to Last a Century

Eve awkwardly cleared his throat to grab everyone at the dining hall’s attention, but when everyone’s eyes turned to him, he froze up and started stumbling over his words, “Um… So, about those things that Blanc gave us the other day… I think – I found what they were used for…”

“Eh?! Really!? Eve-kun really is amazing!” Sou smiled brightly as he praised the boy.

Eve cleared his throat as he scratched his cheek, a small blush warming up his face, “It really wasn’t anything special. I’m sure anyone could have done it.”

“But all of that stuff just looked like random junk,” Amatsuki thought out loud as he wracked through his brain to try and think how the object could have been used.

“It just goes to show you that Eve really is amazing,” Lon smiled and cheered her friend on, mirroring Sou’s words with a meaningful glance at both of them.

Eve just blushed and scratched his cheek in embarrassment as he was bombarded with praise from his friends. Soraru did not fail to notice how Eve seemed to glance at Sou ever few seconds to continue to gauge his reaction, paying the most attention to how he reacted out of anyone in the room.

“What were they used for?” Reol asked in a serious tone, trying to get the conversation back on track as she stared directly at Eve with an even look.

Eve seemed to stiffen at the look and cleared his throat again, his face reflected the serious look that now shown on the rest of his friends’ faces. Eve took a deep breath and began listing off the items and their use, keeping a small tally on his hand and he prattled off their uses.

“Right, well the first object, the really tiny ruler, I used in the corner of the storage where a found a little alcove in the wall that matched its shape. When I placed it in, the floor started to rumble and a bunch of new boxes appeared from under the floorboards.”

“Just… out of the floorboards?” Senra slowed his words, trying to process that thought and the mental image associated with them.

“Yeah, a part of the floor slid back and a new section of the floor rose up,” Eve nodded in confirmation as he thought back to what happened.

“Did you see what was inside of them?” Shima asked, his face contorting in a mix of awe, disbelief, confusion, and curiosity.

“I took a peek inside one, but I didn’t understand what was inside, so I just left it there,” Eve looked down as if ashamed that he could not figure it out.

“That’s alright. What about the other objects?” Urata comforted him, attempting to push forward the conversation.

“Right, the second item, the weird orb, I gave to the statue in the infirmary, that one that had its hands sticking out. When I did, the statue retracted and in its place appeared an extra medicine cabinet.”

“Wait… what weird statue?” un:c question, a perplexed and disbelieving look covering up his face as he tried to recall what the other was talking about.

“Have you never gone to the infirmary? There’s an odd statue in the corner of the room? It looked kinda like a fox-human thing?” Kashitaro explained, also seeming to question his own words.

“I always thought it was a good luck statue for health or something,” Mafumafu titled his head slightly to the side as he thought for a moment before adding, “but it also could have been for bad health, knowing this place.”

“Wait? Why don’t I remember a statue at all?” un:c seemed to get more confused by the minute as he started doubting his own memories.

“I think you’re just blind. Or you’ve never been to the infirmary. Either way, care to continue Eve?” Reol dismissed the other’s concerns and moved to get the discussion back on track.

“Okay then, the last item, the inverted watering can, I used that on the gate in front of the stairs where I found a small leak. When I put the watering can down, it opened them up. I took a quick glance and it seemed to be stairs going both down and up. The stairs going down seemed to lead to a boiler room. The second stairs seemed to lead to another entire floor.”

“Wait!” Amatsuki spoke up, nearly standing up as he heard the news, “a whole new floor!” He seemed to radiate excitement as he nearly started jumping where he stood.

“There could be new hints or clues hidden there!” Sakata cheered as hope brightened up his face. He almost jumped out of his seat right then and there to go check on the new discovery.

“Any one of the new things, Eve discovered could be hints or clues. We should search them all,” Reol nodded with authority as glanced around the room.

“We should split into teams and search the new areas,” Kashitaro hummed in agreement as he nodded to the excited claims of his friends.

Everyone quickly agreed to start searching the new areas immediately, also deciding to search the extra stuff in the old rooms as well as the new rooms. They decided to go in five groups of three so that no one would feel weird about the odd number of people there.

In the end, Soraru went with Mafumafu and luz to search the new medical cabinet in the infirmary.

Upon entering the infirmary, Soraru realized he had only been there once or twice before. And only to see if the medical cabinets had any sleeping medication. (Fun Fact: It did not.)

The infirmary has four total rooms comprising it. The door leading in was at the far right of the infirmary. It seemed like nothing more than a waiting area that anyone could find in a hospital, with overly white walls covered by lame posters with medical facts and puns, glossy hardwood floors that shined so brightly it felt like looking straight into the overhead lights above them, tacky brown leather seats covered in holes and tears that showed the tawny tan fluff that was held inside of them, and troves of fake plants that limped sadly in their glossy, fake, saturated finish.

Past the waiting room, through a corridor off to the left, was a hallway that connected to the rest of the rooms. There were two identical rooms on either side of the hallway that held medical beds. There were eight in each room, sixteen in all, one for each of them. In fact, most of the space in the infirmary was taken up by the medical beds.

Finally, at the end of the hallway was the medical supplies area. The countertop ran along the far wall and around one corner with both hanging cabinets and cabinets bellow the counter. A lot of the supplies in there were things Soraru had no clue what they were for, but there were also some basic things like bandages as well. At the other end of the room were the medicine cabinets, now with one extra one thanks to Eve’s incredible discovery.

Soraru made his way over to them, carefully examining the cases to see what was in one of them. He did vaguely remember one of the cases from when he was here last, filled with cold medicines, basic pain relievers, and (unfortunately) no sleep meds.

The other case, on the other hand, was filled with many things that Soraru had never heard of before.

“That’s odd,” Soraru hummed as he examined the bottles from behind the glass case, “I thought these would be more basic medications, but I’ve never heard of these before.”

“Maybe they’re just uncommon brands?” Mafumafu questioned squinting his eyes at the unfamiliar medications. “I wonder what they do.”

“Shouldn’t we just read the labels and find out?” luz asked, tone still tired and near-emotionless. He moved in front of them both to open the case and grab a random bottle, checking the label to see what I was.

Soraru followed suit and pick another bottle at random. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mafumafu do the same as well.

Turning the bottle over in his hand, he looked at the back label for instruction and details. What he read nearly made him drop the bottle.

_ Nerium Oleander _

_Lethal Serving: 4g_

_If eaten, can cause vomiting, diarrhea, erratic pulse, seizures, coma, and death   
Skin contact irritant _

_Cause an irregular heart rate, which at first races and then drops to a rate far below normal, until the heart stops beating altogether._

“Ah!” Mafumafu let out a startled yelp and dropped the bottle he was holding, causing it to open and the pills inside to scatter everywhere.

Soraru cursed under his breath as he quickly put the bottle he was holding back and went to try and find some gloves and mask to help clean up the mess; however, just as he was about to start searching the cabinets for the supplies they heard a familiar laugh behind them on the countertop.

“My, my, how clumsy you are~” Blanc purred as he moved over the spilt pill bottle. The rest of them flinched back and away from the mess as Blanc got closer.

“What do you want?” Soraru asked defensively as the cat examined the bottle and pills on the ground.

“I’m just here to fix up this mess since you all are such clumsy people. It’s only right that I clean it up as the one in charge around here. It wouldn’t be fun if Mafumafu-san accidentally killed someone because they were stupid enough to step on the pills and inhale the dust. I like my kills to be despair-inducing betrayals rather than stupidity caused accidents,” Blanc turned his head up and flicked his tail smugly before a ponderous look crossed his face, at least as ponderous as a cat can look. “Then again,”

A crooked smile appeared on his face, “I do suppose the despair of the execution caused by a crime that was only accidental would be fun~”

“If you are going to do something, do something. If not, get lost, you dumb cat,” luz coldly glared at the cat in question.

“Fine, fine~ How rude,” Blanc quickly swept all of the pills and the bottle into his mouth and swallowed them with a moment of hesitation. “Oh~ I also came to tell you that you don’t have to worry, I’ll replace that bottle by the tomorrow morning so you can still use it if you want.”

With that and one more laugh of farewell, Blanc disappeared underneath the floorboards.

“So we can’t just destroy all of the poison because Blanc will just replace it all,” Mafumafu hummed in disappointment as he tried to think of what to do with the new medical case.

“Why don’t we just go and try to find a lock from the storage, so we can make sure that no one opens the case,” luz suggested as he stared at where Blanc had just been.

They all agreed and started to make their way next door to the storage area. When they entered though, they saw the other team still there crowding over the new boxes. The Senra and un:c turned when they heard the door open while Araki stayed looking at the boxes, his back facing the door.

“Oh! Hey, what are you three doing here?” Senra asked, his voice a bit shaky and unsure before he cleared his throat a bit with a cough and looked away.

“You were at the infirmary, right?” un:c asked as well, his face was pale and sweaty as his body nervously fidgeted where he stood.

“Yeah, we came to find a lock to put on the medicine case since it was just poisons,” Soraru said blandly as he examined his friends, trying to find why they were acting so weird.

“How about you? What did you find?” Mafumafu asked cautiously and curiously his eyes running back and forth between his friends and the boxes they stood around.

None of the others around the boxes seemed to want to answer that question though as Senra and un:c glanced back and forth between each other and Araki who had still not yet looked up from what he was staring at.

“Araki?” luz asked, voice a blend of concern and worry as he took one cautious step forward to try and see the other man better.

“It’s…” Araki started, his voice a watery and wavering mess as he refused to look up from the boxes,

“It’s nqrse’s stuff.”


	17. Voting Time!!!!!

This is the audience interaction segment!!!!

Soraru-san has a bit of free time now, so he needs something to do with it!!!! What better way to spend free time then by bonding with your friends!!!!

Soraru will be able to hang out with his friends twice over the Arc! You get who he is with!  
The way it works is that through this vote you will be deciding who he hangs out with on the first day (any ties are left up to a die roll), then another Voting Time will be held for the next day. Afterward, the character that got the most votes across both Voting Times will be the last person Soraru hangs out with.

And who knows? Your choices might just sway the tide of the story. Who knows what kinds of Butterfly Effects could occur depending on who you choose? So, pick wisely~!

Down below is a list of the people that Soraru can spend his time with. You have three total votes. To vote, simply make a comment on this chapter with your top three choices. If you want to spend all three votes on the same person, just list their name three times.  
(Note that the selection "Soraru" means that Soraru will spend time alone with himself as opposed to being with someone else.)   
  
(Note: by voting for a deceased person, Soraru will spend his time thinking about that person through either pondering over them as a person/their significance to matters at hand or remembering a scene with that person)

Mafumafu

Soraru

Amatsuki

Kashitaro

Urata

Shima

Sakata

Senra

luz

nqrse

Araki

un:c

Eve 

Sou

Reol

Lon

Blanc


End file.
